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The Moon and Sun
by
Casey Black
One night in Cancun, when I was 8 years old, I walked with my parents onto the back patio of a restaurant and saw the most beautiful moon. Bulbous and orange, it floated on the harbor water behind sharp silhouettes of sailboat masts. It was a luminous jewel. Then, to my surprise, I saw the moon sink quickly and completely into the water. The boats in the marina rocked with a creaking, there was the swish of small waves on sand, and then there was darkness. It was as if there had never been a moon at all. My chest thumping, I turned to my mom and dad to tell them what had happened. Of course, my mother just ignored my alarm and asked me to please sit down in my chair. Though panicked I was not surprised; my parents could never see things like the moon. But I could not just let this go. My impulse was to dive in, clothes and all, to see if I might dredge the moon up myself before it sank too deep. But I would surely have been grounded, so I bargained with myself- I made a secret plan to return when they went to bed later. And that’s just what happened.
When they had fallen asleep I snuck out of our room. Down the elevator, across the expansive hotel lawn, wet with sprinkler water, up the long avenue with the eerie yellow streetlights, and between the giant boxes of sleeping people called Marriot and Hyatt I slipped, for I somehow knew the way. When I reached the restaurant, named El Tesoro Perdido, I snuck behind it and made my way to the marina. There, on the creaky wooden dock I poised to dive where I thought the moon might be. But at that moment I realized how cold the night had become, and I shivered. Then, remembering that I was in a foreign land I was overcome with paranoia and fear, and I realized how utterly alone I was. Should I just go back to the hotel? No one else saw what had happened, was it such a big deal? Why should I be the one to go after the moon anyhow? Surely someone will notice it, someone older and wiser, and the matter would be taken care of. There was a great battle between my heart and head, and when I couldn’t decide either way I sat down, put my bare feet in the water and wept. All night I sat crying into the sea and looked for any flicker of the sunken orb beneath my feet. I sat until the dark retreated into space and the sun filled the world with a blinding light. I knew then I’d never be able see the moon through the harsh reflection.
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