Look to Your Star

The year is 2097. A lone figure bundled up in several layers of clothes walks over the snow covered land of what was once the Nevada desert just two decades earlier. Using his spear as a walking stick he approaches the top of a cliff, one that didn’t exist 18 years ago. He is still amazed at how much of the topography of what was his state has changed, let alone how different life is now.

He looks at his reliable wind-up watch, a gift from his paternal grandfather Felix, of whom he was named after. It was a birthday gift from him on his 16th birthday. He turns the watch towards the snow on the ground. The light from the stars in the night sky reflecting off the white snow made the time visible to him --2:30 PM. In five minutes it would be the 18th anniversary of the moon disaster; a miserable footnote in the history of humankind. More so, 2:35 PM on this date also marks the anniversary of his wedding day to his wife Estelle on what should have been their 20th anniversary. It was also the day he and Estelle met by chance 24 years ago.

Roaming the night sky was the Earth’s ring of rocks. The ring of debris was a constant reminder of the disaster that occurred on this date in 2079. The irony that such a devastatingly ugly, brutal incident would reveal a beautiful canvas of colors. How brilliantly lit was the night; distant stars that could never be seen before (because of the moon reflecting the light of the sun) were now easily visible to the naked eye. He wondered how mariners would navigate a ship with all these stars today-- if there were any sea travelers left; for that matter were there any ships left? If there were, they would have to be wooden ships. There were no shipyards left to build any ships anymore, and no refinery to process fuels. No electricity either. Nothing. The moon disaster set humankind back to the stone age. Where would mariners go anyway? The barrage of the pieces of the moon and the object that collided with it damaged all the man-made satellites circling the Earth. Communication satellites, military satellites, weather satellites. Everything was smashed to pieces and burnt up in reentry or scattered out into the cold abyss of space. For that matter no seafarer would even know if their desired point of destination existed anymore. What time was it anyway?

2:32 PM going on 2:33PM.

He waited all year for this minute in anticipation; time was cruelly taking it away. He did not want this personal moment rushed so quickly. He wanted to savor the memory of what he had before it was taken away so soon. The significance of this bittersweet day made it already emotionally and mentally difficult for him; the harsh night winds and the eventual drop in temperature would make his hour-long trek back to his shelter, what was once his repair shop, physically brutal this afternoon. He just wanted time to stop for a minute. Just to reflect, to go back in time to that day, that moment before life on Earth, and his personal life, changed. To be happy for a minute. It was nightfall now. The days were much shorter now that there was no moon. With no moon there was nothing to keep the Earth from rotating slowly and without a moon, Earth was way off its axis, wobbling as it revolved around the Sun. Climates around the planet changed drastically. Crops dried up. Many nocturnal animals and sea creatures relying upon changes in the tides were now extinct. Polar bears were roaming Las Vegas. It was every man and woman for themselves. He hadn’t seen either in years.

He looked at his watch. 2:35 PM...the appointed time. Damn that was fast. He couldn’t help but take a deep breath as his heart clenched as did every year he returned to this spot. His mind replayed the events that took place at this time and moment 18 years ago. He left his repair station where he worked as a mechanic early taking the rest of the day off; fortunate for him he was able to do so as he owned the shop with his uncle Javier, his mother’s brother. He went to the popular Las Vegas casino where Estelle worked. They drove out to the spot in the road on the Nevada desert where he met her four years earlier. Estelle’s car had broken down on a typically hot day. Lucky for her Felix happened to drive by. He opened the hood of her car parked on the roadside and pretended to work on her engine. All she needed was a battery boost but he took his time flirting with her and getting to know her. He happened to have a spare battery and gave it to her, for no charge if she agreed to go on a date with him that night. She agreed. He stated how lucky they were that he happened to drive by. She mentioned that his name Felix means “lucky”. They got married two years later, on the fateful date they met.

On their way to dinner, he drove to the spot where her car broke down when they first met. He played the music he had stored in the car radio system--a selection of their favorite songs. He got out of the car and opened the door for her. They danced on the side of the road to their favorite romantic tunes, ignoring the heat, reminiscing, laughing at memories as they discussed their future. Where they wanted to travel, how many children they will have, who was going to be the Godparents of their children now that they were expecting their firstborn. He recalled spinning her around, pulling her close, hugging her. She asked what was in his pocket and he smiled. He put his hand in his pocket and extracted a box. “For you mi amore”, he said.

“We said no gifts”, she replied.

“True, but this is for both of us. Open it up”

Estelle opened the lid of the box. Inside was a locket. It was cut in two with a necklace for each piece. She read the inscription on the silver heart- shaped locket. “Oh Lucky, I love it”.

“Take the half you want and I’ll take the other,” he said. “Look; the moon’s visible over there. Hold your part up against it and I’ll hold mine”

They each covered the moon with their side of the locket. She read the inscription. They put on their necklaces and then he dipped her in her arms and gave her a kiss. While still in this position she looked at him, her eyes caught the dim image of the moon in the sky behind him. The sight made her tense and gasp. Felix lifted her up and turned to look at the moon.

Felix saw something big appear, rolling just above and behind the moon. At first they were both speechless until the object collided with the moon. In unison they yelled in disbelief. Whatever hit the moon--a rogue dwarf moon or asteroid--it was worse than the asteroid that hit the moon in 1178. This one was going to cause severe damage to the Earth. They witnessed the moon crack and explode, large and small chunks of its material shear off and fly in different directions into space. The moon seemed as it was heading towards Earth when it pulled back and a ragged quarter of it fused with a couple pieces of the object that hit it to form a newer yet much smaller moon. One that spun further out into space than the original moon occupied. The original moon had already been spinning further from Earth for millions of years, about an inch and half a year but this new smaller one would move over a meter a year and was far off now. It’s destination, unknown, left behind a ring of debris circling the Earth much like what Saturn had.

Estelle and Felix got into the car; they raced back home to Vegas which was just 15 minutes away. She noticed the temperature had gone up to 123 Fahrenheit. A result of the smaller chunks of space rock burning up in the atmosphere. The car began to overheat. Estelle screamed as a flaming molting rock fell their way ahead of them. It hit the ground 2 miles to their right, causing such a crater that their car flipped over and rolled many times. It was hours later when Felix awoke. He looked at his watch. 11:28 PM. The clock on the car froze at 2:35 PM. He looked towards Las Vegas, it was burning, miles away. He looked at his Estelle. She was lifeless.

Felix staggered back a bit in the snow. He unwrapped the thick scarves he wore around his head. He felt the anxiety, the depression setting in again. He needed air, as radiated as it was he needed to breathe. Who would have thought about the amount of damage the moon caused if it ever exploded?

For billions of years the moon’s gravitational pull on the Earth kept it on its axis. There was stability, enough to maintain life on Earth. There were tides, climates, nocturnal creatures...now the Earth was over 40 degrees off its axis. The deserts of Nevada were now a tundra. It’s border with California was now a beachfront. The states of Washington, Oregon and New Mexico were gone. The falling debris of the collision of the moon with a giant asteroid-- or it may have even been a rogue dwarf moon--sent fragments of hot rocks into space while other chunks of rocks rained down upon earth. Several of the big rocks fell into the oceans but others hit Earth with the strength of atomic bombs. The result was the total annihilation of villages, towns, cities, and nations. The fires that were created by explosions of installations like factories, refineries, and gas stations coupled by the winds blowing the fires filled the air with unbreathable air. The sounds of alarms, the sounds of people screaming trying to find their loved ones in the dark thick clouds... The worst was the damage to nuclear reactors. Between the damage to the reactors and the constant barrage of moon rocks the San Andreas Fault finally gave way. The same happened on the East Coast. The last radio message he heard was that the East Coast was gone. The new East Coast was now what once were the Central States with portions of the original East Coast States as their beachfront. The Atlantic Ocean now spilled into the Great Lakes. It was a miracle that the super-volcano under Yosemite didn’t blow up. Much of the world is gone now. Many islands worldwide met the fate of Atlantis, eroded and overrun by multiple tsunamis that claimed them for the oceans. Now the oceans were much calmer and serene for there was no longer a moon in place with strong enough gravitational pull to affect the tides. The little tide activity today was due to the gravitational pull of the sun.

Felix reached around his neck, He removed his part of the locket. He held it up against the small distant rock in the night sky that was once the moon as he did with his pregnant wife 18 years ago. He remembered her putting her part next to his. He could see her part of the locket in his mind’s eye. He could hear her voice as she read the inscription:

“I love you to the moon and back”

He could see her face in the stars. Estelle means “Star” and he was Lucky to have known her. He turned around and began his lonely walk home.