Aphelion Issue 301, Volume 28
December 2024 / January 2025
 
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I Wan to Mayk Things

by Dan Korgan


I’m very excited about the moon! It has magically appeared at the end of the street. I mean it’s just sitting there right now, all orange and round and full. So I pop my head back in the neighborhood speakeasy and say,

“Hey, everybody, come look at this, the moon. It’s sitting at the end of the street. Come look. Come look!”

Bill and Lisa and Tim and Carry are standing in the middle of the street and their jaws have flopped open. It’s late at night and they are excited about the moon too. Really! When they heard me call, they left their tables and ran into the dark street. Carry said something regarding how the moon must be in sync with the earth. Otherwise we wouldn’t always see the same face up there. And Tim says, “You’re right, what are the chance of that!”

“I think it looks like a crocodile’s face,” Bill screws up his face.

“Oh Bill, you always see faces,” says Lisa.

“We could run to the end of the street and climb up, we could. Don’t you think?” I say. “We could be on the moon!”

In just three minutes, neighbors had left their lemon drops and have gathered in the street. You cannot see them because it is as dark as oil, but you can hear their conversations. You can feel the excitement. And Bill starts to cry again. “Bill,” I say, “the moon is trying to gain our attention. The orange orb is calling on us to say something. Come on, say something. Say something!”

“Hi, moon,” says someone.

“I love you, moon,” says another.

“I do too!”

“You’re so full and huge.”

“You’re beautiful!”

“Oh how I love you, moon. I do love you.”

“I wish I could kiss you.”

And Bill weeps again. When Bill cries we take that giant step and the moon transports all of us. And before we know it we are up there this time. We are on the moon where we hide the things we don’t talk about - to anyone - private thoughts of child’s play. Our lovers’ hear us cry. Our lovers’ hear us laugh. “Grow old with me,” I say. But there are those things we must talk about to everyone. Bill moans and wails.

“I’m on top,” says someone.

“We can jump and stay!”

“I’m floating away!”

“Take my hand!”

“Love making on the moon!”

Poor Bill sobs and yells, “The moon don’t know anything,” he says. “This moon don’t talk!”

The moon is full tonight. It had settled at the end of the street. Plump, orange and round. We are floating above the giant orange orb when Billy makes his announcement.

Bill cries, “I wan to mayk things. I wan to mayk things big, I wan to mayk things orange. I wan to mayk things from little pieces. What else, what else…”

Floating above the moon, we look down and see Bill balancing on one leg.

“Lift!”

“Lift!”

Then he floats! Little Bill is in toil. He is having his darling in deep space - dark maroon cotyledons - umbilical cord coiling in dark energy. Our baby is not crying anymore. She is moving her little fingers, drifting with us…


© 2020 Dan Korgan

Dan Korgan lives in a cave in Tasmania and communicates with his neighbours by smoke signals. Or maybe not - he didn't submit a bio. Brave man, really.

Find more by Dan Korgan in the Author Index.

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