“I’ve Never Been To The Moon”

Author’s Note: This is a Take Ten to Write story and has not been proofread for errors. If I feel inspired or if there’s interest in the story, I’ll post a revised, edited, and extended version at a later date. Happy reading!

Prompt: “I’ve never been to __________.”

I’ve never been to the moon. Everyone tells me that I’ve got to go, but I really just don’t have any desire to.

I guess I should specify; I’ve never been to Earth’s moon. Of course, I’ve been to other moons—who hasn’t?—but the moon? Nope, never been.

When I was younger, it was such a big deal. Earth’s moon was pretty much the first habitable extra-terrestrial place we could visit. People flocked to the moon because it was a novelty. You should’ve seen the deals on vacation packages and moon land. People began planning their winter homes and construction began.

Now, the moon doesn’t look anything like the moon you’re probably thinking of. The shadows are all strange and messed up because of the amount of architecture on it. And don’t even get me started on the plant life; just because we can live there doesn’t mean that we should force other creatures to live there too.

But, of course, I was just like everyone else. When the first moon visits became available, I signed up, because that’s what one does. Some time and medical problems later, and my spot got reassigned to someone else.

I wasn’t really mad. By then, plenty of my friends had already gone to the moon and had come back to tell me all about it.

By the time I was cleared to go to the moon, the novelty had worn off.

But then, Celestial Vacations created all-inclusive packages to the further planets and moons. My family wanted to go, so of course we booked one of those packages.

After a few visits, all of those began feeling the same too. I mean, there are only a certain number of biomes and cultures to see before it all feels the same. Earth’s moon became more of a residential zone than a tourist location, so I just never bothered going there.

Of course, some of my friends moved there, but it’s easy to communicate with them through video chats. They usually come back to Earth at least once a year too to visit their own family.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t want to go to the moon, and that I’d much prefer another one of your packages. I’ve already been to all of these ones. I think we’d like to visit somewhere a bit more exotic. Somewhere different than Mars and its moons. Preferably somewhere warm, but not scorching hot.

Actually, you know what? I think I’ll just book a vacation to South America or something. Sorry for wasting your time, but I just think that our conversation has made me realize that there are so many places on Earth that I haven’t visited yet, so maybe I’ll just start there.

Final Comments: This one was a bit all over the place. I didn’t have a clear idea from the beginning, and I think that it was pretty obvious throughout the story.

Overall Rating: 😕