Moonchild (part 2) (404 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.5 on 5 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by indigogecko (View user info) at 2004-05-28 05:09:22 EDT
Part 1 of this story can be found here:
http://www.ubersite.com/m/34323
In the days that followed Jamie had a lot of preparation to do, not least informing the school, and calling the recruiters for his place on the induction week. Two of his closest friends were going too, and on their last day in school they were asked to leave four seperate classes for disrupting the lessons with their high spirits.
That weekend dragged almost intolerably. Jamie sat on his bed, staring around his stripped-down room. He and his dad would be joining his friends and their parents for a farewell dinner, but somehow seven o'clock wouldn't come soon enough. For the first time in the mad rush of the week sinse his Dad had agreed he could go, he had time to sit down and realise exactly what he was doing, and suddenly he was a little bit scared, a bit sad to be leaving. He wouldn't back out, that wasn't an option now, with so much to look forward to..
He took out a notebook bound in blue plastic. It had been sent to him by his sister. She was away at university now, on the other side of the world, and the distance coupled with exams meant she wouldn't be seeing him off. She'd sent him the book with the instructions to write down everything and send it back when he'd worked all the way through it. Ally never did like using the viewscreen much. Well, now was as good a time as any to start, he figured.
**Sunday June 10th, Day -1**
Tomorrow it all starts. Seems like at last it's all becoming real. Tomorrow I'll be at the RAF base down the road for the local induction, then after 3 days there I'll join all the other kids going out there at Cape Canaveral for the "mission briefing", and in 10 days I'll be on the transport, looking back at big blue marble, saying goodbye to -
"To the whole world", he said to himself.
He couldn't bring himself to continue the entry now.
Mercifully his dad called up to him not long after that, time to go for dinner. Jamie was instantly back to being excited, as he scrambled into the car. It was a short and uneventful ride to the restaurant, and Tom and Vicky were already there. The place was packed, Jamie thought most of the groups there were probably throwing goodbye parties of their own.
It turned out theirs would be more than just a goodbye party. The three children would be spending their 13th birthdays on the moon, so the parents had got together and arranged for cakes, presents, balloons and even a seranade by the waitstaff for them. Vicky got a globe with a light inside, Tom got a sweatshirt with a world map on it and Jamie got a number of posters with maps, animals and a book on the first moon landing.
They stayed until closing time. Everyone there did. By the end of the evening the music had been turned up, people were dancing and everyone had introduced themselves to everyone else. His suspicions had been right, and their group of three had increased to no less than 22 children who would be heading out to the base in the morning. Eventually the manager closed up, and they parted ways. Not one of them was likely to get much sleep tonight. Jamie spent most of the night curled up on the sofa with his dad watching vidoes, eventually drifting off with his head on his fathers knee.
..part 3 coming on Tueday.
User Reviews
Submitted by Magicaddict (user info) at 2004-05-29 12:34:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Good, although this means I can't post my serial story without calls of "copycat". Meh.
Submitted by euripidestrousers (user info) at 2004-05-28 10:35:55 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
No Comment
Submitted by AshK (user info) at 2004-05-28 10:11:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
I am enjoying this! I look forward to the next installment.
Submitted by indigogecko (user info) at 2004-05-28 08:14:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
well the next part is the induction, so you'll find out everything... on Tuesday.
Submitted by Dervel (user info) at 2004-05-28 06:25:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Missed part one first time round, just read it, its good, so is part two.
In part three can we have a bit of background on the hows and why of the lunar base?
Looking forward to the rest of this...