by Dan Eaton
Myra stayed with her parents when I wandered over to hang with Willie, who was standing by the head table. He looked sharp in a red shirt paired with a bold blue tie. He had on matching dark slacks and vest. We stood there for a while talking about the day’s earlier Gogo game. Adam showed up looking resplendent in his clothes and joined us. I noticed Myra had disappeared, but more people had shown up and the place was starting to get full.
It was almost time for the event to start when Christine walked up to us and said, “Wow, you guys clean up nice. Why don’t you follow me? I want you three to escort the girls in.”
She led us back to the conference room we used for a classroom and there were the girls. At least I think they were the girls. I still hadn’t gotten over the transformation in Myra but Ananyu and Nina were equally beautiful. Nina was dressed in a dark blue silk dress with a necklace of shining crystal stones around her neck. She had her blond hair pulled back in a fancy braid that made her look like she was a goddess stepping straight out of some Greek legend. Ananyu looked like a fairy princess. She had on a gossamer dress that complemented her skin tones and her long dark hair had been crimped and pleated. Topping her head was a crown of flowers that must have come from my Mom’s gardens.
Christine suggested that we pair up as couples like for the first dance and then said to give her a minute before starting out for the cafeteria. I would have liked to have escorted Nina into the cafeteria, but I was out of luck on that score. We gave Christine her time and then walked on down to the cafeteria. As we approached the door, we could hear Christine doing an introduction for us as the guests of honor, the class of 2041. When we went in the door the place was jammed and they all applauded us as we made our way to the table reserved for us.
We all sat down and the room quieted down so Christine could make her opening remarks. I had never seen the cafeteria so full. The Habitat had three hundred and sixteen permanent residents plus there were frequently transients like the shuttle pilots and the occasional space tourist. I know there had to be people staffing critical positions in the Habitat but there must have been pretty close to three hundred people in the room. Christine welcomed everyone to the party and hoped it was the start of a long tradition of Home Coming Dances for the school. She then said it was time for the first dance and that the Class of 2041 would lead things off.
We all got up and I lead Myra out to the floor to take our place. Christine and Miss Gayle had decided the first four dances would be to slow music. Partly they did it to make sure no one got embarrassed by not being able to dance, anyone could shuffle, and partly to make sure no one got over enthusiastic in their dancing and launched themselves or their partner into the wall or ceiling. The first three dances were to be us kids, then Miss Gayle and Christine decided that it be nice to have a parent/child dance. Everyone could join in after the first dance so by the time they opened up for requests people should have a feeling for dancing on the Moon and hopefully no one would get injured. Not that that would stop any of these people from trying.
I took Myra’s right hand in my left and put my hand on her waist to guide her. She put her left hand on my shoulder and looked at me with a big smile. The music started and our three couples started dancing. Myra and I and Adam and Ananyu were moving. Nina and Willie were doing the shuffle. Christine and Miss Gayle had picked out the music and we were dancing to Aerosmith’s “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing”. Mom and Dad enjoy listening to classic rock so I had heard of Aerosmith but I had never heard this song before. At first, Myra and I had moved slowly and it was like dancing with my mom, but as we became more comfortable with each other we slowly gelled into a couple and started dancing smoothly across the floor. It was fun dancing with someone when we were both in tune to each other and moved like we were one. Myra had a dreamy smile on her face and I was looking into her eyes thinking how nice this was when the song ended. Myra gave me a hug and walked over to join Adam for the next dance.
Ananyu walked over to join me and as she walked up to me said, “Bryce, please do not launch me like Adam did.”
Somehow, Myra and I had missed it when Adam got a little too energetic and ended up launching Ananyu into a wall. Ananyu being as graceful as she was had managed to rebound off the wall and back into Adam’s arms all the while looking like it was something they had planned. I promised her I wouldn’t and as the music began we started dancing together. The song was “Harvest Moon” by Neil Young, another artist I had heard of via my parents, but again I had never heard the song before. At first we were a little stiff together, but as graceful as Ananyu it wasn’t long before she started making me look good. It was fun dancing with Ananyu and we did look good together, but we really never quite gelled as a couple like Myra and I had. The dance did give me a chance to figure out who was the shuffler in the group. A very careful looking Adam was making the rounds of the floor with Nina while Willie and Myra rocked back and forth over in the corner.
The song ended and as Ananyu walked off, she said in a relieved sounding voice, “Thanks for the dance Bryce. We’ll have to try it again later.”
Nina walked up and brightly said, “Hi Bryce.”
I’d been waiting for this for a long time and said “Hi Nina” before taking up position with her waiting for the music to start. The song was Journey’s “Faithfully,” and Nina and I started dancing like we were perfectly in sync. I enjoyed dancing with Nina and we were good together, but I was a little surprised to find I actually like dancing with Myra better. It was weird but in some ways it felt like Nina was all about superior technique while Myra was about having a connection.
The song ended and Nina said “Thanks Bryce,” before walking off to find her dad for the next dance.
I didn’t get any time to think about dancing with Nina when my mom came up and gave me a hug.
She said, “Bryce, you’ve been dancing so well. You and Myra looked amazing during your first dance. Wendy was so impressed with how well you and Myra danced together. The camera seemed to like you two also.”
Before I could process what she said about a camera the music for the parent/child song started. It was Cindi Lauper’s “Time after Time,” a song I’d heard my mom listen to many times. She grabbed me and we started circling around the floor with my mom having the biggest smile on her face. She was very proud of me and she was getting to dance. I knew Dad, while not being enthusiastic about dancing, could hold his own with Mom and I hoped he had on comfortable shoes because I could tell Mom was fired up to do some dancing.
When the dance ended, Mom gave me another hug and said “Thanks, Bryce,” and then wandered off to grab my dad for the next dance.
I was heading off the floor to get something to drink when I ran into Christine.
She said, “Bryce, you looked good out there on the floor. May I have the next dance? Miss Gayle hated the thought of not being here and she made me promise I’d get in a trip around the floor with each of you for her.”
I said, “Sure Christine. Let me grab a drink and take a little break and I’ll come find you.” I felt a stream of air across my head as I turned around and looked up. A camera drone of some kind had just passed over me to get a better angle on one of the couples out on the floor. It was a faster song and I could just imagine the antics that were going on out on the floor right now. I was about half way to the drink table when I ran into Nurse Oak from the Medical section. I hadn’t seen her since my birthday party, but she remembered me and after telling me how well I had been dancing asked if she could have a dance. I told her I already owed Christine a dance, but I would find her for the dance after that. By the time I made it back to the drink table, had something to drink, a little snack from the goodies Chef Patel had made for the dance, and then made it back to Christine, I had been asked to dance by Marcy from work, Valerie Allan from the pickup desk at Habitat Supply, Ananyu’s mom, Willie’s mom, and both Ananyu and Myra.
When the dance was over I was dog tired. I was also very gra
teful to my mom for insisting not only that I learn to dance, but more importantly, that she had made me wear these dress shoes to break them in way before the dance. I had danced fourteen dances with twelve different partners. Despite his initial over exuberant goof with Ananyu, Adam had racked up a similar number of dances, although Ananyu only danced with him the one time. The girls had no problems filling up their dance cards either. Even Willie, the shuffler, was asked to dance and dragged out on the dance floor repeatedly. The grownups had gone all out to make this a great dance for us and it was much better than I had expected. I think too that most of the adults had a really good time thanks to the excuse we provided.
When school had started, Christine had asked us to produce a V-Blog every week. Adam and Ananyu were the co-hosts with the rest of us filling in as we could. We documented all the decisions we made regarding the school traditions and activities Miss Gayle had led us through. We each did an interview where we talked about ourselves and our lives at the Habitat. We did all the boring stuff you’d expect of us. The V-Blog had about twenty thousand followers and each V-Blog posted had about seventeen thousand views. Adam and Ananyu had their little groups of fans and the rest of us all got an honorable mention. It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t that good and we really didn’t have any different expectations. Then came the coverage of the Home Coming Dance and things blew up.
That camera drone I had noticed belonged to Security. For God knows what reason, when they put together the Security department someone thought it was a great idea to provide Security with a drone equipped with a high definition camera. Miss Gayle had asked Christine to make sure and get some good video for the V-Blog. Christine had been talking with Sam Tanner and Sam thought using the camera drone might be a good idea. Sam shot all the video from the event. She had some great clips of Myra and I dancing and she caught the action when Adam goofed with Myra. There was more footage of all of us dancing during the second and third song and then of some of the funnier incidents when everyone was dancing.
Miss Gayle and Nina took the footage and worked together to put up a collage of the event. I thought they had done a great job and that had nothing to do with the four sequences showing me dancing with Myra, Ananyu, Nina, and my mom. They also included Adam’s mistake sequence and then a few of the funnier incidents with the adults. It was released on the usual V-Blog release date and immediately we started seeing the number of views jumping up way beyond normal. The next day the news networks had picked up the video and re-released it with their own slant. They made me and Ananyu look like some kind of dance team sensation. They had clips of me dancing with Myra and Nina which they then followed by the clip of Adam’s mistake. They made a big deal out of Ananyu’s graceful recovery and closed out their clip with Ananyu and I dancing and a “sincere” wish that Ananyu and I continued dancing as a couple. That pushed our views even higher and NASA started getting interview requests for us from everybody and their dog.
The following day a user named “Anonymous1957” posted “How to dance.” He or she had taken the network footage and re-edited again. This time it showed Myra and I gliding along the dance floor and pointed it out as a perfect example of how dancing should be done. Then they cut to Adam flinging Ananyu away and added sound effects with her screaming as she went flying into the wall and then rebounding with more sound effects of her cursing up a blue streak at Adam. When she was back in Adam’s arms there was another sound effect like their bodies had slammed together and then her saying, “Ow, that’s going to leave a mark.” There was a voice over at that point saying, “Girls, don’t be the victim of a klutz like this poor young lady.” Then the screen went dark, there was the sound of a gunshot, and a male voice crying out in pain. The next sequence showed Ananyu and me dancing with a female voice over adding, “Now that’s more like it!”
I want it noted that I consider Adam a friend and I felt really bad for how Anonymous1957 made him look in the video. On the other hand, it was hilarious. I thought it might just be me being an immature fourteen year old boy, but the video went viral. Miss Gayle brought the video up for her to watch when we told her about it in school the next day. She tried really hard to keep a straight face, but eventually she about busted a gut laughing. Adam was a good sport. He didn’t deserve what Anonymous1957 did to him, but he endured everything with grace and I think we all gained a lot of respect for him because of that. The end result was that Ananyu, myself, and Adam became instant celebrities. In Adam’s case it didn’t start out well, but he was such a class act and engaging personality that it wasn’t long before he went from being clumsy Adam to just being Adam. In the meantime, the school V-Log jumped up to over a half million followers and until the fuss settled down each V-Log had about seventy five thousand views on average. NASA was very happy with us.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Trick or Treat
Good morning fellow NLH residents. It’s Saturday October 31th, 2037.
In Habitat news this morning today we celebrate Halloween. All witches, ghosts, and goblins are invited to our annual Halloween party this evening at 19:00 in the main cafeteria.
Deena Cortez, Toby Bark, and Lyn Craig are collaborating on providing costumes and make up for the Halloween party tonight. If you’re stuck on what to wear please come by and see them in conference room 419 today between 09:00 and 16:00.
In financial news today, on the Lunar Stock Market shares of Mussconny Machine are trading steady at $20.37 a share, Mussconny Fabrication at $18.00 a share, Hotel Whipple shares are rising at $8.75. O’Reilly’s Shellfish Company is up at $13.57 a share and CDB Farms is trading steady at $6.50 a share.
I stopped dressing up for Halloween when I was eleven. Just got too old for that silliness. Now at the Habitat I was back to trying on my costume for the Halloween party tonight. I use to think Halloween was for little kids, but it was obvious from the enthusiasm the adults were showing towards the party that they weren’t just doing it to humor us kids. I was glad my Mom had made me put my costume order in early along with hers because when she sent me to Habitat Supply to pick up the order there was actually a line to pick things up. My Mom and Dad were going as Raggedy Ann and Andy Zombies. I had decided on dressing up as a cowboy because for some reason a cowpoke on the Moon sounded really funny to me. Now, looking at myself in the mirror it just didn’t seem as funny. I decided I’d just have to make the best of it because it was too late now to change anything anyway.
When Mom and Dad were ready, we stopped by the Cherneski’s to see if they were ready. Myra’s parents struck a pose as they came out their front door dressed as Superman and Supergirl.
Mr. Cherneski spoke up and said, “Ta-de-da-Dah.”
We all chuckled at their entrance and then Myra came out. She was dressed up as a Tabby cat and looked really cute with cat whiskers drawn on her cheeks to complete the outfit. We headed on down to the cafeteria and the Halloween party looked to be a repeat of the Homecoming Dance as far as how many people were attending. They weren’t planning on any dancing so the tables remained spread out which helped to make the room feel less crowded.
Mom, Dad and Myra’s parents went to grab a table while Myra and I sought out our classmates. We saw Nina first. She was dressed up as Captain Ellie from the popular Star Patrol series. She was wearing a replica of a Series II blaster on her equipment belt and looked really authentic standing there. Adam showed up next and the clown was wearing a cow suit complete with udders. Willie came up next wearing a Batman costume and then Ananyu glided over dressed as an Elf to complete our group. We decided to grab a table and sit together.
Christine ran the party as we had expected, but I wasn’t the only one there who was surprised when she showed up in a sexy red Dominatrix costume. It worked pretty well from a fourteen year old boy’s point of view, but she was actually modestly dressed compared to some of the women. There were a couple of ladies wandering around in Rigelian slave girl costumes from Star Patrol that left less to the imagi
nation than I’m sure my parents were comfortable with. I couldn’t help wondering what Nina would have looked like as a Rigelian slave girl instead of Captain Ellie. It was a great party and Adam’s parents actually took home an honorable mention from the costume competition. Coop Dumas had dressed up like Doctor Who and Mia Dumas had complimented that with a blue dress and hair that made her look like the Tardis.
It was a little over a week after the Halloween party and I was at work cleaning out one of the Vertical Machining Centers. VMC was just a fancy name for a milling machine controlled by a computer put inside a box. I liked them because the enclosure kept the chips from flying all over the shop and the VMC’s were easy to keep clean. Sandy was putzing around the shop and had been watching me for a while.
Finally, he said, “Bryce, you feeling ok? You don’t seem as chipper as I normally see you.” I looked over at him and gave it some thought.
I had been feeling kind of down lately and said, “Sandy, I guess the problem is I’ve been here for almost four months now and I feel like I’m missing out on the adventure. My mom is getting plants to grow in the lunar gravity. That’s her big adventure and she’s having the time of her life. My Dad is working on the linear accelerator project. Just about every day he gets to go out to the Manufacturing module. He’s even been in a rover out to the initial construction site. He’s having a great time. Me, I go to school in a conference room, eat food that’s not so hot, and otherwise live a pretty boring existence. I wasn’t expecting to go wandering around on the surface with my classmates where we’d find a cave with a hidden spaceship that we’d use to fly off to all sorts of adventures but I guess I just thought the Moon wouldn’t be so boring.”
