by Dan Eaton
I just sat on the ground for a minute trying to figure out how things had gone so badly when the party had started off so well. Everyone was staring at me and I saw a worried Mom and Dad heading my way to make sure I was okay. As quick as they were, Sam Tanner was quicker and was checking me over when Mom and Dad reached me.
She said, “Hi there Bryce, still not got the hang of dealing with woman I see. Are you okay, hey?”
My jaw hurt like heck, but everything still seemed to work okay. I said I was alright and slowly got to my feet while Mom, Dad and Sam watched me like a hawk.
Sam looked at Mom and Dad and said, “Let’s get him out of here and over to the Medical section. I don’t think he has a concussion, but let’s let a doctor make that call.”
I missed meeting the new folks that night. Dr. Taylor was on duty and he checked me over and agreed with Sam about me probably not having a concussion, but insisted I stay there for observation for an hour just to make sure. After the incident with the gun, I was a little worried about Sam being there, but she gently questioned me about what happened. It was all so embarrassing and I was worried about Myra so it took a while to get the story out.
When I was done, Sam looked at me with a gentle smile and said, “Bryce, next time duck. I want to speak to your parents in private for a minute and then I’ll be out of your hair. I know things look bad right now, but this too will pass.” With that, she led my parents out into the hallway.
They were gone for about five minutes and I thought I heard Mrs. Cherneski’s voice before they came back in. Dr. Taylor came by to give me a last check up and then he sent us home. I didn’t want to be seen in the cafeteria since the welcome party was still going on. Mom and Dad understood so we dropped down to the Grand via the new stairs near Life Support #1 and came back up the extension to the Viewing Chamber stairs. Mom and Dad patiently led me through the Garden room and then along the first barrel vault all the way to the far end. We crossed over to our vault there and got to our house without having to pass by the Cherneski’s. It was a long night and I didn’t sleep much.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Swimming in the Dark II
I slept in late Saturday morning. After the very public fiasco last night I wasn’t in the mood to be around a lot of people. Mom and Dad came back from breakfast with a to-go box for me so I crawled out of bed and sat in the family room eating. Mom came in and she was clearly upset over the incident. On the one hand, someone had attacked her son and she was incensed over that. On the other hand, she had spent a lot of time with Myra and loved her like a daughter.
Dad came in and I asked the question that had been bothering me since Sam had talked to us last night. “Dad, am I in trouble with Sam again?”
“What? No,” he answered, “Sam saw the whole thing. She said you were clearly the victim. When she pulled us out into the hall, she asked us if we wanted to press charges against Myra.”
Mom looked like she was about to cry.
I said, “You told her no right? It was my fault I got Myra so upset.”
Dad had a sad look in his eyes when he said, “Bryce, we told Sam we didn’t want to press charges against Myra. She’s been so close to all of us we just couldn’t do that. But, Myra does have a problem and you need to understand that it’s not your fault. You could have handled it better, but she’s the one that struck out and hit you. Just like you, she’s responsible for her actions and right now she’s the one in hot water with Sam.”
Then it came back to me. Back after the gun incident Sam Tanner had called me to her office and had me re-read the Habitat Resident Agreement that set forth all the rules and regulations that governed someone’s stay here at the Habitat. I had to sign a paper saying I had read and understood the rules. For all it had expanded, the Habitat was still a small place and someone guilty of physical violence against another resident was in deep trouble. Unless there were mitigating circumstances, the guilty person usually had just bought themselves a ticket back to Earth. For Myra, that would mean her parents would be leaving too. It was the same scenario that had almost played out with me and my family.
I looked at Dad with panic written all over my face and said, “Dad, is Myra and her family going to be expelled? Is Christine handling this like she did for us?”
Before Dad could answer Mom stepped into the room and said, “I saw Sam Tanner and Christine go over to the Cherneski’s about ten minutes ago. I trust Sam and Christine to do the right thing and I don’t see them deporting a fifteen year old girl and her family over this. We’ll just have to wait and see how this all plays out.”
We all shared a worried look and I went back to picking at my breakfast. Mom and Dad had got me the stuffed omelet along with a side of bacon and despite what was going on I couldn’t help myself from wolfing it down. I just wish there had been Coke available this morning instead of the chocolate milk they had brought me.
There was a knock at the door and it was Christine.
Mom invited her in and when we were all gathered together, she looked at the grave faces we three wore and said, “Come on guys, you know me. It’s not as bad as the looks on your faces seem to imply.”
Dad and I broke into grins of relief and Mom gave Christine a big hug.
I was still a little concerned, so I asked, “Christine, what’s going to happen to Myra?”
Christine gave me an encouraging smile and said, “Bryce, you make this easier since you don’t hold a grudge. I’m glad Myra has a friend like you because I’m going to have to ask you a hard favor for Myra. Myra is going to be attending counseling sessions with me for a while. I can’t have this happen again and she needs to get her temper under control before it gets her in bigger trouble. I know you two are close, but for her sake we need you to stay away from her for a while. At least until she and I are confident in her ability to handle her emotions.”
Despite what had happened, I still considered Myra my best friend and the idea of not being able to be around her troubled me.
I said, “Christine, I’ll do whatever you need me to do for Myra but how the heck am I supposed to go to school with her and not be around her at the same time?”
“I know this isn’t going to be easy because the Habitat is a small place, but just do the best you can do. If the two of you are in the same room together, then you be on the opposite side and whatever you do, for now please don’t communicate with her by any means. No talking, no messages, no nothing. I promise you that won’t be forever, but I need you to do this for her.”
I nodded my head yes and then Christine said, “Okay, I need one more thing from you. Myra is waiting outside and has something to say to the three of you. She needs to do this but I ask that you keep it brief.”
We stepped outside and there was Myra, her mom, and Sam. Myra looked pretty bad. She looked like she hadn’t gotten any sleep at all, her eyes were red from crying and her right hand was in a cast. It was her mom that I had thought I heard last night. Sam told me when I asked later that Wendy Cherneski had taken Myra into Medical when Myra kept complaining how much her hand was hurting. Doc Taylor had taken a look and diagnosed her with Boxer’s fracture and put her in a cast so it could heal. Hands are fairly fragile things and punching something hard like a jaw was usually a bad idea.
Myra stepped forward to speak, but before she could say anything Mom rushed over and gave her a hug and told her everything would be okay.
Mom stepped back and Myra said, “Thank you for letting me speak with you. I know I’ve let you guys down with my behavior. Bryce, thank you for being my friend. I’m sorry I got so angry and hit you. It’s not your fault you want to be my friend and I couldn’t accept us not being more.”
She had been looking at the three of us, but now she focused solely on me and said, “I’ve felt a connection to you since the first time I saw you back in Houston. I‘d like to think someday we’ll be together, but clearly neither of us is ready for that now. I’m going to work with Miss Christine a
nd try to be a better person. Bryce, I know Christine has asked a hard favor of you for me and I’m in no place to ask for another favor but please try harder with Nina. You need to resolve that one way or another and as your friend I want you to be happy.”
There were tears in her eyes as she stepped back and her mom led her back to her house. For me the rest of the day went by in a blur. Willie came by to cheer me up and we spent some time talking together before he had to leave for work at the Whipple. I really didn’t feel like going to work myself, but at least it was just going to be me and Sandy. Veronica was off today and I needed a bit of time to pass before I felt like talking to her about how I had let her warning slip my mind.
The night was quiet as Dad and I paddled around the wall of the pool down in the Grand. It was the 4th of July and a return to school was looming the next day, but for the moment it was just me and my dad having fun. The blue-green globe low on the horizon was the Earth and overhead a million tiny sparkles revealed the wonder of the Milky Way. Every now and then we’d catch the reflection of one of the communications satellites orbiting the Moon. The lights in the pool room were down low and the projection on the walls and ceiling gave a pretty good illusion of being on the lunar surface swimming in a pool.
Dad knew I was still a little shy about crowds since the incident at the birthday party. Mom was with our friends celebrating in the main cafeteria while Dad had found The Pool was underutilized this evening so he booked a session for us. There were some other folks in the pool with us, but no one I knew and if these guys knew what had happened to me they were at least giving us our privacy. I really like the small town feeling living at the Habitat had but along with the good you had to take the bad in that news traveled really quickly. By now I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a single person in the Habitat who hadn’t heard what happened between Myra and me Friday night.
Somehow, Dad sensed where my thoughts lay and said, “The fuss will die down soon enough and things will get back to normal.”
I looked at Dad and replied, “Yeah, but the new normal is I can’t be around Myra. That’s going to be hard.”
We paddled around quietly for a couple of minutes and then Dad said, “She’s right, you know.”
I looked over at Dad and said, “About what?”
He swam for a little bit and then said, “About Nina. I remember when we first saw Nina back in the hotel lobby in Houston. She came in all sweaty from her run and you looked at her like a man dying of thirst looks at a cool glass of tea. That was twenty months ago, and outside of the classroom you’ve probably have spent time with her less than ten times during that period.”
I swam some more before answering, thinking about what Myra had said several times and now what my dad was saying.
I finally replied, “Just because I like Nina doesn’t mean I find her easy to talk to. She’s not easy for me to talk to like Myra.”
Dad shot me one of those looks he reserved for when I was doing something stupid and said, “Maybe you should think about what that right there is telling you.”
I was getting a little frustrated with Dad and shot back, “Just because you and Mom want me to marry Myra doesn’t mean that’s the right thing for me.”
Dad chuckled and replied, “Easy son, I know this isn’t easy for you. Your Mom and I do like Myra but you guys are barely fifteen so we haven’t been trying to find a preacher to marry you off just yet. All I’m saying is that there is a time limit on this Nina thing. High school only lasts so long and then you both are going off to college. Callie told me the other day that Nina has her sights set on getting into the Air Force Academy. Who knows where you’ll be going to school. If you seriously want to see if you and Nina are meant to be then you better do something before the two of you leave for Earth to attend your schools because it probably isn’t going to happen after that.”
I flipped over on my back and paddled around quietly for a while staring at the fake sky. Dad had a point that I hadn’t considered before. Three years, whether on the Moon or Earth seemed forever, but I knew in my head that Dad was right and the clock was ticking. Of course, knowing I had to do something soon was entirely different than knowing what to do. The best I had done with finding something in common with Nina was watching Star Patrol. We’d watched all of the available shows and the current season wasn’t going to be out until the fall. That left a lot of time with me not having anything to talk to Nina about. I’d just have to try harder to find something.
Dad sensed I reached a decision and asked, “Bryce, are you still okay with our decision to come here? I know it hasn’t always been easy for you, but your mom and I thought you were enjoying yourself.”
I looked over at my dad and said, “I hate not being able to have a Coke when I want to, or not being able to eat a piece of fresh fruit whenever the mood strikes me. I miss my friends and family back home. I miss those warm summer evening swimming in our pool. I miss a thousand things every day.”
Dad swam over closer and said, “So you want to go back?”
I said, “As much as I miss everything back home, I’d miss what we have here now even more. I can tell you the names of all my classmates and each of their parents’ names. I can tell you, our neighbors’ names and the names of the people you and Mom work with. I’ve met and come to know so many people since we’ve come here. I like how it feels like we’re connected to everyone. I’ve seen some amazing things this past year, but I’ve, we’ve, made some even more amazing memories. So, no Dad, I don’t want to go back. I may have hit a rough patch right now, but I’d really like to stick around and see what the next year brings.” Dad gave me a fist bump and said, “Good.”
Did you enjoy reading this novel?
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Thanks,
Dan Eaton
Author’s Notes
First off, a really big thank you to my beta readers. The book wouldn’t be as good as it is without your efforts.
Jennifer Buck
Bobbie Slattery
Pete Foss
Carolynn Foss
Joni Perkins
What I intended for this book was it to be was a journey to and then exploration of life on the Moon in the near term future. The explorers would be normal people, in this case, some young teenage kids and their parents. In a lot of science fiction I’ve read lately the hero is either military, ex-military special forces, cyborgs, or in one brilliant case, a robot running an operating system that mimicked a specific human woman who had been uplifted by an advanced race. I’d like to think that most of the future exploration the human race does is done by normal people. Not that normal people can’t be special in their own right.
Speaking of special people, Cheryl Burns character is inspired by my grand-daughter. At the beginning of the story she’s an adventurous, confident, thirty six year old wife and mother. She’s cheerful and healthy and the holder of a doctorate in Biology. She’s completely normal. Or is she…?
Cheryl is a CDH survivor. In the world of 2037 I created, Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia (CDH) is a birth defect whose cause and treatment is known and understood. Sadly, in the real world of 2017 when this is being written, CDH affects one in every 2500 babies. The overall survival rate is 50% and the cause of CDH is unknown. When the fictional Cheryl Burns was born on March 2, 2000, even less was known of CDH and she is lucky to have beat the odds.
My granddaughter is a CDH survivor who was born in June 2012. The following statements describe the likely outcomes of her birth a
nd were made by competent physicians at a nationally recognized children’s hospital. The doctors were facing a monster they didn’t know how to vanquish and based on their experience it would have been cruel to offer any hope.
Will always be behind the eight-ball.
In the extremely unlikely circumstance the infant would survive, she undoubtedly will have severe neurological damage.
Ethically optional to treat
My granddaughter beat the odds and proved those doctors wrong (I’m sure to their delight). Not that she hasn’t had a struggle. CDH survivors have to fight to stay alive. But the real story with my granddaughter is not her struggle to live but her joy in living. Despite everything she’s gone through she is a happy kid. She’s always been a happy kid. Someday, I think she’ll grow into the kind of woman I envisioned Cheryl Burns to be and that’s a very good thing.
Regarding the story’s setting in time and place. Whipple Crater is a real place and the data we have seems to indicate there’s ice in the bottom of it like there is in a lot of other craters whose bottoms are perpetually shadowed. If you follow the link, the second image shows the Whipple crater. Whipple crater sits in the image just to the right and above the cross hairs that represent the lunar North Pole. It’s about 25 kilometers from the pole. Below Whipple in the image is the larger adjoining Peary crater.
Lunar North Pole
I chose the time of twenty years in the future as a reasonable guess based on what forecasts for lunar colonies look like currently. I’m probably wrong on the date. There’s nothing in the technology I described that would prevent a lunar base from being established much sooner. There are people actively working on making this stuff real and my bet is that they’ll have the answers sooner than later. And then there’s wild cards like SpaceX pushing things along even faster. We live in interesting times.
