Lonely Moon
It is waiting for you
She squeezes her body between the cement wall and car door. The familiar scraping of her knuckles against the bumpy stone reminds her that she never learns. Fresh blood pools out of yesterday’s scabs, but not enough to drip. It never is. She laughs to herself like usual as she imagines which neighbors might be watching her do this every single day and are perhaps having a laugh of their own.
Laugh with me sometime, she wishes silently.
Lucy retrieves the few bags of groceries waiting for her in the backseat. Darkness of another day checked off the list looms above her. Her most persistent audience lingers in her periphery-the moon. Tonight the illuminated crescent hugs the lower parts, barely hanging on. Lucy can only devote her stares to it for one more moment before she gets too sad. She wants the moon to tell her something, but they haven’t spoken in years.
Something bright alerts her from the street and she instantly forgets all about her sadness. She doesn’t hesitate, she lunges for it. Finally, something needs her complete attention.
Out in the street, the yellow flickering and bursts of heat captivate her entire presence. Her bags fall to her sides. Oranges and avocados roll away from her and the light. She sees her inner child and the total decimation of existence all at once. She feels the empty caverns of her yearning fill in with the heat. She’s happy and furious, dripping with sweat.
A hand rests on her shoulder and absorbs the wetness. Lucy is shaking as she turns to face the kindest eyes she has ever seen. She’s terrified, the kindness looks like the end of the world.
“What are you looking for?” the woman asks.
“Oh, come on. That is so tired. Can we talk about anything else?” Lucy pleads.
The light vanishes and the woman holds both of Lucy’s hands, covering the white scraped skin and clotted drops of blood. The street feels more vacant than usual and much smaller. Lucy blinks her eyes and night transforms into day. The woman never lets go.
“Do you need anything?” she asks.
“Just lay here with me.” Lucy implores. The pavement forms into soft green grass and dandelions. Millions of dandelions with no end in sight. “I just want to find it on my own.”
“That’s fine.” The woman releases Lucy’s hands and lays down first. Lucy smiles and follows her. Only a few clouds pass by and the sun is close to the horizon. A sunrise that begins to reverse after a handful of short moments. The pink and orange rays of the sun reach out to them stretching from the horizon and illuminating their bodies, casting purple shadows beside them.
Like Lucy’s favorite quiet friend, the crescent moon humbly appears in the twilight. “There.” She tells the woman.
“What is it?” the woman wonders.
Lucy tries, but can’t begin to form the right words to describe. Words always ruin it. It’s the friend she can’t talk to anymore that hurt her too much, but tried to apologize. It’s the friend she pretended for who hates her for the lies. It’s the friend that she left behind because she felt used. It’s the friend she saw like a mother who gave up on her too. It’s the friend who’s always with her but gets buried in pain every day.
It’s all of them. The warm light and heat from all of them. She admits to herself how she misses it.
Lucy feels a surge of energy pulling at her and driving past her. It is stronger than she can hold on to. The woman disappears and the meadow is in total darkness, save the crescent moon and her many twinkling babies.
It sounds like the moon is laughing, but it is gentle.
She isn’t imagining it; the moon is laughing with her.
Previously published on Medium
More short stories by Lila Cave-Park:
A Goodbye That Meant Something
Twilight cracked the horizon as they placed themselves in the grass; exposed to anyone who might be wandering the path. Lucy was comfortable when he took her glasses off because the blurriness made it seem like maybe none of it was really happening.
This thread! It is amazing and wondrous!!
This was very interesting! I enjoyed how the landscape shifts!