Beyond Green Moon Cafe

Beyond Green Moon Cafe

by Karen Leech

The distant golden sun was moving rapidly across the sky as the tiny blue earth planet spun on its tilted axis. Glistening silver stars painted speckles on the black sky on one side of the earth, while a sprawling canvas of iridescent blue stretched out towards each horizon on the other.

It was a typical summer day in the year 2097. On the blue side of the earth a family known as the Tweazels were going about their rather mundane daily tasks. The Tweazel family consisted of Mr Tweazel, Missie Tweazel who was 12 and the youngest Tweazel, Marnie, now already 9.

The next-door neighbours the Willows, true to form, had been gawking over the glass fence into the Tweazel family’s backyard. No dirt was to be seen in the yard at all, as in 2097 an exceptionally clean environment sustained life. In fact, cosmic electrodes powered everything.

Somehow technological innovation and its resulting progress had forced mundanity into society’s everyday life. Almost everything was done from home and rarely did anyone venture out at all. Even the desire to travel was to most people a thing of the past.

The Tweazels were the laughingstock of some in the community, as their space craft was old and clattery. Not at all the sleek aerodynamic object that the Willow family gloated about so often as it sat motionless from day to day in their driveway.

It had been the unique custom of the Tweazels to take their old space craft out once in a blue moon to a distant takeaway café on a tiny planet named Green Moon. Something about the mundanity of today inspired the Tweazels to go out for a trip in their old spacecraft and they headed straight for Green Moon Café!

After a fly-through meal of compressed flavour bites which were flat square sheets of amalgamated food dispensed through a slot in the wall, topped off with a jug of Green Moon plant juice, the Tweazels were ready to head for home. Just as the spacecraft roared back into travel-speed a bright red flash caught their attention. The brilliant light spread upwards in an arc on the distant horizon. Mr Tweazel gently turned the old spacecraft and headed bravely towards the luminous red glow.

Edging slowly closer, to their amazement, inside the red glow the Tweazels saw a huge silver egg-shaped object spinning rapidly on its narrow end before gradually coming to a halt. As they hovered respectfully next to the giant egg it cracked down one side and out stepped a most unusual creature. The creature was known among earthlings as a Crimson Twaggitot.

The Tweazel family were awestruck, as they had only seen a Crimson Twaggitot on their spacescreen at home in the lounge room but they had never seen one in the wild! The Crimson Twaggitot was red of course and round and fuzzy with huge golden eyes. It had no mouth so it could not speak.

As the Tweazels gazed on, the Twaggitot quivered and produced a strange object that it had once collected from earth on an adventure to the past. The Tweazels were amazed when the creature beckoned towards them with a fuzzy crimson hand.

Mr Tweazel stood in the doorway of his spacecraft as the Crimson Twaggitot carefully handed to him a very mysterious Little Black Book. The cover of the Little Black Book was made out of a strange kind of animal skin called leather. It was from the days when earthlings wrote on something known as paper with long sharp objects called pencils and pens!

It was the most curious little notebook the Tweazel family had ever seen. After studying the Little Black Book ever so briefly they were just about to thank the unusual creature for the unexpected gift when it suddenly re-entered the silver egg. In a flash the crack in the egg repaired and as it spun faster and faster the egg took off into the milky galaxy.

Mr Tweazel skilfully turned the spacecraft around and quickly headed for home. Once the old spacecraft was safely in the driveway back on earth the Tweazels crowded around the dining table as Mr Tweazel carefully opened the book.

On closer examination it was a most peculiar book indeed. It consisted of only two pages, each extremely thick and the equal of about fifty pages normally found in an earth book. Between the two thick pages was a flat pouch made of flexible silver.

The family gasped as Mr Tweazel opened the pouch. Inside was a neatly folded wad of cash totalling $20,000! A note inside the pouch written in fuzzy handwriting (with a pen) read, “We know you! You need new space craft. This money from year 2021. Things back then very old fashioned, like your space craft! Buy new space craft! If you want new space craft! Better than next door!”

The Tweazels laughed as they looked at the old paper money people used back in 2021. Then Mr Tweazel’s eyes began to gleam. He grabbed the new cosmic electrode laptop and looked up “Antique Money” on Spacebook marketplace. The money given to them by the Crimson Twaggitot had grown in value and was now worth even more than the Willows’ brand-new swanky aerodynamic space machine!

The Tweazels looked fondly at their old space craft and then looked back at the $20,000 cash before placing it safely away in their money tin for a rainy day. Even though the money was tucked away for now, the Tweazels knew it would be there ready to use, in a flash, if ever they should need it.

They lovingly kept the Little Black Book in a safe place inside the old clattery spacecraft, just in case they should ever have a chance to return to the galaxy beyond Green Moon and meet up with the curious Crimson Twaggitot. The generous donor of the life-changing Little Black Book.