Spacewalkers

I wrote this for a short story contest, never finished however I would love some feedback on this. Is it engaging? Does it make sense? The prompt was creative crusts, including pies, pastries. Speculative fiction.

SpaceWalkers

I had only heard of this in the stories from those who came before. Apparently flaky and gooey with just enough flavor to make you want to keep eating it. A food from the old Earth, or what we called Earth. As I know it now, the world where we send our trash and dead. Mother used to say that to me when I was bad, “you know if you don’t tidy your room, I will send you to Earth and never look back.” Not much for mincing words, Mother would use that vague threat anytime I did anything she thought was wrong. I looked out the window, and saw the covering over us ripple.

Another meteor must have hit the shield. I sighed. We have come so far, to be able to live on the Moon. Over time we adapted to the gravity being nonexistent, and the extreme weather. Many of us were spacewalkers, born out here on the Moon, now called Lunar Dois. We had never stood on Earth, now known as the wasteland. I remember hearing from Mother the story, that of the original Earth dwellers. They had consumed so much of the Earth’s resources, uncaring to the idea of what may happen to those who came after. They bled the resources dry and consumed at a rate that would put even Jupiter’s storm to shame. Destroying Earth, to the point the only thing left for humanity to do was leave and start over.

I had been staring out the window so long I hadn’t noticed that we were released from class. The teacher cleared her throat loudly. I clumsily gathered my things and left the classroom. There was an ancient idea that education was important to the spacewalkers. We learned the lessons of antiquity, such as mathematics and chemistry; which helped get the originals out to the moon. We learned of Neal Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin; the supposed first men on the moon, though we were shown that they faked that mission to impress and beat a country on Earth known as Russia. I found the originals to be interesting, I wanted nothing more than to go to Earth. There was a shop in town that had ancient relics, items from before that we could look at. My favorite relic was something called a cookbook, “Mastering the Art of French Cooking” by Julia Child. Apparently she was also a spy before becoming what they call, a cook. An amazing thing that the originals used to do, they enjoyed making food. Crafting different things like pies, cookies and truffles. Even the words were delicious. Life here on the Moon was bland, we had to be very careful not to upset the balance we had created here. We were invaders here on Lunar Dois. Hoping like mad that the God we believed in would allow us to continue our existence here.

School was finally over, I had daydreamed my way through, as usual. I began the long walk home. I lived on the dark side of Lunar Dois. Which meant I had over an hour to walk home. I liked being “outside”. The shield above was clear so you could always see the sky. At school, I could see the Sun and at home, I could see the stars. Briefly at where the Lunar Dois became dark, I could see Earth. This marble with swirling white patterns with green and blue, that changed everyday. I had a plan to get to Earth. While I had never been, I was as close to human as any of my classmates would get. While many of the originals came and started to take partners from other planets and systems in the galaxy; that is after Earth’s “government” allowed the originals to know that other beings existed. We formed an alliance to help keep us alive. By integrating ourselves with others we could exist on Lunar Dois with its limited oxygen. My family was humans two generations back, pure. I wasn’t even considered a real space walker because of this, however I was born on Lunar Dois so I was given that name. There was a base on the dark side of the moon, where all I had to do was sneak onto one of the trash crafts; we sent all of our waste there, including our dead. Apparently it was part of a reforming project to eventually get us back to Earth. Humans had been on Lunar Dois for over 100 years; but this spacewalker was ready to do anything but stay here eating potatoes, beans and rice for the rest of her life.

Mother was away, tending to the fields. She would be gone for days at a time, allowing me plenty of time to get to Earth and come back without her noticing. School would receive a note tomorrow explaining I was sick; giving me the perfect alibi. Tonight was my chance, they sent the crafts once a month, I tracked the schedule and knew today was the day. Luckily for me this particular area wasn’t monitored at all. Who would want to leave Lunar Dois, for the wasteland?

I packed my bag and was traversing the dark side once again. I had walked this path before and looked up at the shield. We were told that the committee put up the shield when we first arrived, a way to protect us from the Sun and from other beings who may want to take us over. According to the textbooks, the shield makes it look like Lunar Dois is uninhabited. I wonder what we need to be worried about coming for us.

As I approached the trash crafts, I slowed my pace. There were robots managing everything; compounding the trash, moving in onto the crafts and sorting things out that might have some use. I saw that there was a half full craft and silently snaked my way in and under some of the trash.

I must have fallen asleep because next thing I knew I felt the rover landing, and effectively dumping me out along with the trash. I tumbled out with the refuse and a few bodies in bags. I realized quite quickly that I was hot and that it was very likely I was near fire. I looked around and realized the trash was being put into what I remember learning in class from the ancient times was an incinerator. As the trash was spilling into the fire I knew I had to find a way out. Frantically I searched around and there was a ladder, leading to what looked like a blue sky, with wisps of white. Exactly what I remembered of Earth looking like from my side of Lunar Dois.

Swiftly I carried myself through the trinkets and scraps, my sole focus on making it out alive.

As I climbed the ladder, I felt the air get lighter and fresher. I came out of the hole and was created by mountains and a river. I had only seen pictures in our family's photo album. An album that was illegal on Lunar Dois. Mother only had showed it to me once but she held it with such delicacy, I knew it was something she treasured. My great-great grandparents had lived in a place called Montana, in the United States. A primitive version of our Confederation of Lunar Dois. This site looked like Montana, but I had no way of knowing where I was. All maps had vanished from the wasteland. The Committee of the Confederation of Lunar Dois wanted to erase all aspects of the wasteland; while reform was coming to get us back to Earth; many of the policies were to keep us from asking too many questions in the meantime. The museum of Relics was the only place we could see, exactly what they wanted us to see from the time before. However as I walked along the river, I felt that maybe they had been lying to us. This was not a wasteland. It was green, and fresh. Breathing was not the chore it was on Lunar Dois, and I looked up and saw that Earth didn’t seem to have a shield. I saw those white clouds I had always admired from Lunar Dois. As I gazed up I was in awe because there it was, Lunar Dois. My home, all I have ever known. All those times spent gawking at Earth and Earth was looking right back. Maybe the Committee didn’t know how nice it was down here, perhaps I could tell them we can come back!

I continued to follow the river carefully to mark where I needed to come back to in order to make it back to my rover home. I wonder if Julia Child ever went to Montana. I’m sure she had. She was a born adventurer; made to find and make things that sounded like they would melt in your mouth. I noticed that the Sun gave me a pinkish hue here on Earth, not that gray-blue that I saw when I was on Lunar Dois.