The crunching of wet grass and leaves accompanied the trek between the trees. Mia tripped over a branch. After regaining her balance, she noticed green needles and a bulbous brown thing attached. Familiarity compelled her to pluck off the brown growth, a pine cone if she recalled correctly. It reminded her of ones painted in the nature book she often rented as a kid. Seeing one up close, moving its rough scales around in her hands, it rendered her dumbstruck. Did others feel this way when meeting celebrities?
“Hey.” called Jun, the actual celebrity she met. They might be on-par with the pine cone, but it did have needles attached. “You’ll wanna see this.”
Mia and her pine cone emerged from the trees into a gorgeous sight: Water spanning a couple blocks, rippling ever so gently. Pine trees as well as flat-leaved ones created a towering barrier around it. Bugs zipped through the air. Birds flittered between the trees. Though she and the others stood alone, life burst from every inch of the area.
She stepped up to the lake’s shore. Her reflection stared up at her. She couldn’t believe it; all this water, just sitting here. Naturally. “It’s beautiful.”
“Oh, my bad, I meant the sky.” Jun’s reflection pointed upward.
“The sky?”
Little evidence of the rain lingered in this part of the sky, with only a few white clouds scattered against the blue. Mia appreciated it, though she didn’t know why Jun took the time to point it out. Then, something caught her eye. Just under the sun, a patch of colors hung in the air.
Roxie gasped as soon as Mia laid eyes on it. “A rainbow!”
“Wow!” Emil’s footsteps approached. “Consider yourself lucky, Mia. You don’t get to see these everyday!”
Mia’s brain could hardly register that the rainbow wasn’t some kind of simulation. Its faintness and patchiness helped a little to prove its authenticity. Lunaria would never program a rainbow that could go unnoticed, but that’s what made this one so beautiful.
Her phone bracelet vibrated. She set the pine cone down and took it off to see a message from Emil, a picture of the same rainbow. ‘Look what we saw!’ it read, followed by a couple of rainbow emojis.
“I sent a picture to everyone.” Emil explained aloud. “It can’t hold up to the real thing, but I figured Mia would want a souvenir.”
He was right. The phone picture couldn’t capture its beauty, but something about the gesture made Mia’s heart well up with gratitude. Earlier, she worried that everyone would just gawk at her reactions for their own entertainment. Maybe they still were, but someone thought of her when taking this picture. Someone bothered to point out the rainbow to her. Someone suggested going to the lake so she wouldn’t miss it. For some reason, these people felt the need to do things for her sake. Her eyes teared up. How dramatic. She didn’t feel that emotional.
A splash cut through her thoughts.
“Mia!” Roxie called from further down the shore carrying a pile of rocks. “You should partake in the rock skipping experience!”
“I used to love rock skipping!” Emil rushed down to the shore to pick up some rocks. Jun strolled to the other side of the shore, between Mia and Roxie.
Mia picked up rocks to throw, but quickly found that she couldn’t part with them. How could she? As many rocks as there were on the Moon, she could never pick them up with her bare hands no matter how much she wanted to as a kid. These came with much smoother textures and colors other than black and white.
“Aren’t you gonna throw any?” Emil took notice.
“I don’t know. There’s so much variety in the rocks here. It’s nice to be able to touch them.” She watched Roxie and Jun’s rocks collide into each other. “My dad used to take me hiking back home. We’d pick up rocks, but couldn’t take them home. Moon dust is a big deal.”
“Ohhhh. You should take some with you! Maybe bring some back for your dad.”
Shoot. She knew she shouldn’t have brought him up. “Um, he’s not…”
He read the room. “Oh, sorry about that.”
“No, it’s fine!” Good. She didn’t have to go into specifics. “I’ll just keep the ones I like the most.”
Mia separated unique rocks from ones that looked similar to ones on the Moon, setting the former down by the pinecone. She threw one into the pond. It sunk immediately.
“You have to flick it like this.” Jun demonstrated.
Mia followed their lead. Her rock sent ripples through the water, skipping three or four times before finally sinking. She did it again. A smile grew with each little bounce and each little splash. How simple, throwing without thinking. No wonder Naila found this relaxing!
The others managed to send their rocks much farther, probably because they were willing to use the smoother rocks. But distance wasn’t her goal anyway. In fact, trying to throw harder exhausted her more.
A fish jumped out of the water and slapped one of Mia’s rocks with its tail. She jumped too, gasping, then laughing. “Um, whoops! I’d say that’s kind of rude, but I’m the one throwing rocks into its home. Sorry?”
“That fish parried your attack!” Roxie pointed.
“It’s swinging like it’s tryin’ to go pro.” Emil skipped a rock far into the water.
Jun whistled at it. “How are you, like, throwing those so far? Like what’s your trick?”
“Anger issues~” He winked. His expression grew calmer, tossing another rock. “Skipping rocks in the pond behind my grandparents’ house helped me calm down as a kid. But I had to find other ways since there’s no ponds in space. Just like there’s no ADHD meds in the IF…!” As Mia’s brother would say, his smile reeked of pain. “I like to think I’ve mellowed out, though.”
Mia couldn’t imagine revealing something so personal about herself, let alone around people she’d barely known for two months. She worried for him. Going by how the captain talked about his life earlier, she wondered if he did too.
“I didn’t know about the meds thing.” Jun tossed a rock and caught it. “Sounds kinda bogus.”
“Yeeeah.” Emil skipped another rock. “I can already hear my bro getting onto me for tellin’ you guys.” He waved his hands, feigning panic. “‘You can’t let them know your diagnosis, they’re gonna kill you, aaaaah!’”
“I wouldn’t murder you for having ADHD.” Roxie promised.
“Jail time’s not worth killing for. To me at least.” Mia moved her pine cone and rock hoard farther away from the shore. The back of her hand brushed against some grass. It felt surprisingly silky.
“I’m a pacifist, so murder’s kind of like against my whole thing.” Jun moved the same rock around in their hand. “The captain seems very–” They cut themself off. “Hey Mia, you want this rock?”
“Huh??” Mia didn’t register the question at first, too mortified at being caught petting grass like a weirdo. “Sure, thanks.” The change in conversation was abrupt, but she’d accept a free rock any day.
“You look like you’re really enjoying life. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you this happy before.”
“Me either!” Emil added.
Their words took Mia by surprise. She couldn’t remember being this happy in a long time. Even then, most of her best memories were tainted, and being let down became so routine, she could only trust written words to bring her joy without disappointment. Sometimes those failed her too! Her books would always be there for her, but she didn’t know when she’d get the chance to experience this planet again, if ever. She should enjoy it. Nothing bad happened yet, so maybe she should let go of her fear, too.
“I knooow, it’s so cute!” Roxie gushed. “You should’ve seen her reaction to ants!”
Mia’s face grew red from all the attention. “Uhhh, I’m going to see about collecting more rocks.”
“Cool. What about leaves?” asked Jun.
“Leaves?”
“Yeah, I figured you might want some for the road.” Jun pointed toward a cluster of trees far away. “There should be some good ones over there.”
“I’ll go with you!” Roxie volunteered, running over to the trees.
Mia trailed behind. She didn’t want anything that would shrivel up on the ship, but she figured she’d check the leaves out. Over her shoulder, she caught Jun tapping Emil on the shoulder with the back of their hand.
“Hey, is your bro, like, okay?” They asked in a hushed tone. Mia could barely make out their recounting of the drive from the spaceport.
“Awww, that means he cares!” Emil practically yelled. His voice lowered after that. “All jokes aside, I’m glad he opened up,” he sounded unsure of that choice of words, “to you like that. He’s just doing what we were taught, but sometimes I’m worried…”
“Behold!” Roxie dropped some pine needles into Mia’s hands. They were braided.
Mia surveyed it. “You did this?”
“I did, and I challenge you to do the same!” Roxie placed an unbraided plug of pine needles into her hands.
“Me??” Mia couldn’t braid to save her life.
“It’s only a right of passage, my dear Wattson. We used to do this all the time as kids with the few trees in my town.”
“You didn’t have many trees like this?” She attempted to anyway.
Roxie shook her head. “Only wheat.”
“I’d like to see wheat someday.” Mia’s “braid” turned into a horrific knot. “There’s so much I haven’t seen before. I feel like an alien here.”
“Technically, you are one!”
Mia scratched at her hand. She hadn’t thought of it like that, but it made sense. “I guess I am. Wow. I must be the most boring alien alive!”
“Noooo!” Roxie denied.
“I got excited for pine cones.”
“That’s pretty neat! Not many people get excited about pine cones!” She tried so hard to make Mia sound interesting. It might not be true, but she appreciated the effort. “What other things do you notice with your Lunarian eyes?”
“It’s not something I can see, but,” the freckled girl took a deep breath, “the air here is really thick.”
“...Thick?”
“Is it because of all the trees?” She scratched her hand again. Did that spider bite her?
“What do you mean thick?”
“Heavy. If Lunarian air is like water, this would be a milkshake. A little harder to get through the straw, but way more delicious.” A black bird with a red belly darted through the air, catching her attention. “Is that a pigeon?” The taller girl found herself tearing up again, but didn’t know why.
“No.” Roxie corrected. “But I think we have more pressing matters to attend to here. Are you struggling to breathe?”
“I wouldn’t say it’s enough to be a struggle, but it is harder than usual.” A creeping suspicion told Mia that air shouldn’t be thick.
“Mia, you forgot my safety ti–” Roxie abruptly stopped, blinking. “Have you seen your hands lately?”
“No, why?”
Mia answered her own question as soon as she asked. Swollen red splotches covered both sides of both of her hands. Rolling up her sleeves revealed they went halfway up her forearms.
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