Aging, and aging rapidly. That is what Harry thought about himself, he looked at his hands. They were old, his hands bore the marks of age. He sat in the bar, his regular place.‘Joshua’s Place’ it proclaimed on a neon pink sign, on the window of the old brownstone. Harry sat drinking from a large Guinness, the only good Guinness in town, he thought to himself.
Evening’s empress moved to her chair, replacing the mighty mornings king. Harry
looked outside the window. His eyes caught the stare of lady moon’s. Harry spoke silently,
“They say that it’s a man in the moon, but there’s no such nonsense. The moon is a lady. A fine
lady, at that.”
“That she is.” A voice like heaven said in a kindly tone.
Harry looked over at the eyes of a goddess, or something supernatural, he knew that much. The eyes stared back at the old gray eyes of a man past his prime.
“What did you say?” asked Harry.
She smiled, the kind of smile that would make a demon turn against it’s master(and it had at that). Her green eyes brightened Harrys melancholy soul.
“I said, She is quite a wonderful woman. Would you like to meet her.”
Harry, at a loss for words, simply nodded his head. Slowly, a word was able to make it out of his
moist lips, “P-please.” he trembled as he spoke.
The angel smiled at Harry again, “Come with me. By the by, my name is Lorna.”
Robert slowly got to his thin aged legs. He stood a few inches shorter than Lorna, who stood
holding his arm.
“Come on then young man.”
He smiled at the joke she had made, he thought to himself, “Her calling me young. She can’t be
more than twenty-five.”
The couple walked out the door of the bar. Stood in the lamplight of the street. They both in unison looked up at the moon. Lorna smiled, as she saw the look on Harrys face. The expression of pure joy, tears ran down his face.
“Are you coming with me then.” She tugged a bit on his arm.
“Are we going farther. I can see her just fine from here.”
She smiled that angel smile again. “We are going to the moon.”
He looked over at her, saw the look of complete seriousness on her face. He smiled a
wide toothy smile that he had had for his whole life.
“Really?”
“Come now, we have a trip ahead of us.” she again tugged at his arm.
A few minutes walk to Bellows Antiques, and they stopped. She knocked on the door of the old brownstone. A grumbling from behind the old cedar door and a click. There before the couple stood a gruff man that seemed to be as old as the sun. In reality that was completely false. He was much older than the sun.
“Hallo.” His voice resonated through the night air.
“Hello, Bellows.” Lorna said confidently.
“Lorna, how are you and that husband of yours.”
“Joshua’s fine.”
She cleared her throat and tugged Harry closer to her.
Bellows cleared his throat, and spoke apoligetitly,
” Come in, come in.”
“Thank you, Sir.” Harry said silently.
“No sirs in my establishment. Only Bellows, and if the needs be Mister Bellows.”
Lorna huffed, “ I brought him by to see the Moon Empress.”
“Oh how fitting. She has been wanting some company. It gets lonely up their you know.” he says this to Harry and prodded him in the ribs, with a wink.
“Well, which door do we take to get to her?” asked Lorna impatiently.
Bellows puts his hand to his chin, as you would were you thinking very hard. He then looks up
to the ceiling, and speaks,
” Which door to the moon?”
Harrys face, twisted in confusion, he thought to himself,”Was this man Bellows asking the
house, or just thinking out loud?”
A voice came from nowhere, and everywhere. “Down the hall and to the left.”
Lorna looks up and pats the wall like one would do to a dog. “Thanks.”
The three now moved down the hall of the shop that seemed to large to be contained in the brownstone. A door opened, and the three companions entered .
A door a mile high stood before them. Harry looked on at the door and gawked at the sheer size
of it all. Bellows knocked with a kane that he had been carrying.
A squeak of hinges, and a small voice.
“Hello? Who is there?”
Bellows smiled and said quite loudly,
“It is I Madame Empress. Mister Bellows.”
“Oh, it is good to see you, my friend. Who is it that is with you?”
Lorna then spoke, “ Madame Empress, it is I, Lorna. We have brought some one to see you. His name is Harry.”
The light then receded from Harrys eyes. He saw clearly the face of the Empress of the moon. His age, and yet older, A very light blue color to her eyes and a Victorian outfit and hairdo. He smiled his large toothy grin.” Hello. Madame Empress.”
She smiled back, put out her hand to be kissed, “Call me Pearl.”
The love between the two of them was instantaneous.
Bellows and Lorna slowly backed out of the door and left Harry and Pearl to their life.
Pearl and Harry dance the waltz, on the surface of the moon, smiling at each other. Through his large toothy grin, Harry asks,
“Is this heaven?” We don’t hear the answer, we simply pull away into the darkness of
the stars.
The next night at the Joshua’s Bar, another regular named Chris, turned to his friend Eric. “Hey, look.” said Chris,” The moon is smiling.”
Eric looks out the window, “Y’know, I think you’re right.”
