Moon Kids

Moshe knew that he was different from the rest of his fourth grade class, but he never understood why. For the first five years of his life, he didn’t speak. His parents frantically took him to doctors and speech specialists, but Moshe just stared at them blankly as they begged him to produce sounds. When he finally did speak, he walked into the kitchen where his mother was chopping vegetables, and asked where his The Little Mermaid DVD was. The cutting board crashed to the ground before his mother turned around and realized it was her own son speaking to her in perfect sentences, as if he had done so every day of his life. From then on, he spoke as normally as any other five year old. 

In school Moshe wondered how everyone else in his class already knew how to read and write, or to raise their hand when they needed help. Usually, Moshe sat quietly at his desk and thought about mermaids or dresses until his teacher realized he hadn’t started the assignment with the rest of the class. Over time, Moshe’s teachers and classmates realized that he wouldn’t start unless someone helped him. Whoever was sitting nearby would try to help, but when Moshe wouldn’t pick up the pencil, his classmate ended up writing the work out for him. Moshe didn’t really see the point of school. He wanted to be a mermaid anyway, and mermaids didn’t need to read or write. All they did was sing, and Moshe’s mother assured him he had a lovely singing voice. 

Even though Moshe’s classmates were all nice to him, no one wanted to play with him on the playground or have playdates on the weekend. None of Moshe’s classmates particularly interested him either, but sometimes when he saw them laughing he felt like he had no idea how to be like them. There was a whole world in his head, but everyone else seemed to exist somewhere else. 

During the second week of fourth grade, on perhaps the hottest day of the entire year, the door to Moshe’s classroom burst open, awakening the fourth graders from their sleepy midday haze. A kid with spiky blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a big smile waltzed in with the school secretary trudging behind him. Before the secretary could open her mouth, the kid announced, “I am Egan. I am nine years old and I hate school.”

“Thank you for sharing, Egan,” the teacher said, exchanging a knowing look with the school secretary. 

Moshe had never heard someone say they hated school. He didn’t know he was allowed to hate school. 

Egan wasted no time in transforming the once peaceful class into his stage. At first, the kids thought it was funny when he called out in the middle of a lesson that he was bored. Eventually, the rest of the class joined the teacher in scolding him. Egan enjoyed the attention, the way everyone’s face spun to him, all those eyes like spotlights. He liked the way his name chorused through the classroom, and even though everyone thought they were responsible for stopping him, only Egan decided when he was ready to quit. Moshe observed Egan in awe. All Moshe knew was that he didn’t like being at school all day, he never understood how his classmates did it so easily, but he had no clue what he would rather do instead. Egan always seemed to know exactly what he wanted to do, and he did it no matter what. 

Some days all Egan wanted to do was read his book, but his classmates called him out the second he started flipping the pages under his desk. Things he saw his classmates let each other get away with, like sneaking snacks out of their backpack or doodling when they were supposed to be paying attention, were no exception for Egan. Egan realized he was losing control. His entire class hated him. That wasn’t what he had meant to do at all.

There was only one person in the whole class who never shouted Egan’s name, never told him to do his work or stop messing around, never tattled on him or watched for him to break a rule. Moshe hadn’t said a word to Egan, but Egan felt drawn to him, the way gravity pulls everything in the universe into its proper place.

“What book are you reading?” Egan asked Moshe one day during independent reading time. 

“I can’t read,” Moshe replied, staring at his shoes.

“Oh! I love reading. Books are great,” Egan said.

Moshe shrugged.

“Well, I could read to you if you want,” Egan offered. “This book is about pirates and ghosts. It’s really good. I can tell you what’s happened so far.”

Moshe looked up at Egan’s pale round face beaming at him with blue eyes so bright they shone like gemstones. Egan sat down next to Moshe, pressing his shoulder against him. Moshe was surprised by how warm Egan’s arm was against his. He wasn’t used to anyone besides his family touching him, even though he saw his classmates hug each other all the time. Like they were sharing a secret, Egan told Moshe the story so far, about Jack Sparrow and the curse of the Black Pearl. Moshe was immediately entranced. He asked Egan what kind of dress Elizabeth Swan would wear, and they spent several minutes sketching out various ideas for her royal gowns. Then, in a quiet voice, Egan read into Moshe’s ear. For once, Moshe didn’t float away into his day dreams. He watched the entire story unfold in Egan’s words, as vivid in his mind as if he were watching it happen in front of him. 

The rest of the week, Egan seized every opportunity to sit next to Moshe. He still disrupted the class and irritated his classmates, as if it were a series of bad habits he couldn’t break, but when he was with Moshe, he was almost always calm. Egan made Moshe giggle, a noise most of his classmates had never heard before. Egan brought in his favorite comic books, and Moshe loved how he could see a whole story from pictures. It was Egan’s idea to make their own comic book together. Egan wrote the words and Moshe drew the pictures. On the playground, whenever Egan fell down, Moshe was there holding out his hand. When they needed to partner up in class, neither boy had to look around the room helplessly to see which classmate would tolerate them that day. For the first time in his life, Moshe didn’t feel like he was alone on his own planet. 

“Moshe, do you want to be my best friend?” Egan asked one day on the playground.

Moshe’s face lit up.

“Yes! I’ve never had a best friend before,” Moshe said.

“Me neither,” Egan said. “Maybe we can have a sleepover at my place sometime.”

Some students nearby overheard the conversation and the news spread like wildfire. Their teacher rearranged the seating chart so that they could sit together, which benefited the entire class as Egan more often only needed Moshe’s attention. Moshe began looking forward to his days alongside his wild best friend instead of dreading the boring grind of school. 

Even though Egan’s behavior calmed down somewhat, his classmates did not forgive nor forget what he was capable of. While the girls ignored Egan most of the time, the coldest thing they could think to do, the boys intentionally taunted him as much as they could get away with. They hid his books and claimed they were trying to help him focus better in class. They started arguments that raised Egan’s voice to a screech and resulted in the teacher sending him out of the room. Everyone watched Egan like a hawk hunting a mouse, waiting for him to slip up so they could punish him. Their disdain did nothing to discourage Egan, something Moshe admired. 

One day, when the warm air was just beginning to fade to fall’s crisp chill, Egan had an idea to climb the fence on the corner of the playground so that he could grab a tree branch for him and Moshe. 

“We could build our own clubhouse! Then no one will find us. We just need some wood,” Egan said.

Moshe knew it was against the rules to climb the fence, but he didn’t say anything. Instead he dutifully stood guard as Egan shoved his toes into the gaps of the chain link. 

Egan was halfway up the fence when one of the more popular fourth grade boys, Ryan, ran over. 

“You can’t do that!” Ryan exclaimed.

“Mind your business!” Egan hollered back.

“You have to get down, that’s not allowed,” Ryan insisted, crossing his arms. 

Moshe glanced nervously at the recess teacher talking with a group of girls across the field. 

“Leave me alone,” Egan spat, reaching his hand up for the next link.

“Get off the fence, Egan,” Ryan commanded.

Moshe barely turned around in time to see Egan leaping off the fence and landing on top of Ryan, gripping his neck. Ryan screamed and tried to push Egan away. A group of kids circled around them, chanting, “Fight! Fight! Fight!” Others were yelling at them to stop. Moshe saw Egan’s eyes open wide and unblinking. His mouth was stretched into something like a smile, baring his teeth like a dog before the bite. The teacher ran over and screamed at them to stop but everyone knew Egan wouldn’t listen. Moshe didn’t know that if the teacher restrained Egan it could result in a lawsuit, all he knew was that the teacher wasn’t going to do anything, so he reached in and put his arms around his best friend. Egan flailed until he realized it was Moshe who was holding him. 

Ryan sprinted away, surrounded by a crowd of kids all wanting to know what happened. Moshe held Egan, who was still wearing that crazed look on his face and breathing hard. Egan struggled to break free again, reaching his arms out in Ryan’s direction until the teacher grabbed his arm and led him to the principal’s office, leaving Moshe alone on the playground. Moshe didn’t realize he was sitting by himself in the grass, slowly rocking back and forth, until his teacher placed a hand on his back and led him inside. 

Moshe didn’t see Egan until it was almost the end of the day, when Moshe was pulled from class to work with the Learning Center teacher on his reading. As he walked down the hallway, Egan and the principal were walking back to class. Moshe hung his head, unable to look at Egan.

“Moshe? Are we still friends?” Egan asked carefully as they passed by each other with their respective adults.

Moshe shook his head and kept walking. Egan’s shoulders fell and he hung his head too. The Learning Center teacher asked Moshe if he wanted to talk about it, but Moshe shook his head again. He just wanted the day to be over. After the lesson, Egan was waiting expectantly for him in class. On Moshe’s desk was a picture of two boys, one with spiky blonde hair and blue eyes, the other with curly brown hair and glasses. The letters “BFF” were written at the top, which Egan had once told Moshe meant “best friends forever.” 

“I’m sorry Moshe. I really am,” Egan said in a low voice, searching Moshe’s face. “I just go crazy sometimes. I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. I’m really, really sorry. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

Moshe traced the letters in the picture. Egan was the only real friend he’d ever had. 

“Do you forgive me Moshe? Can we still be friends, please?” Egan begged.

Moshe nodded. Egan squeezed him tight until Moshe released a tiny smile. 

“Thank you Moshe. You’re the best friend ever,” Egan said. 

The rest of the class was working on a computer program that Moshe never got the hang of, so he watched over Egan’s shoulder as Egan played the game his own way. The pair were quiet so the teacher didn’t snap at them to get on task, and Moshe felt relaxed for the rest of the afternoon, giggling at Egan’s jokes in their secret corner of the universe.

After the fight, the fourth grade class decided that Egan was their enemy. No one knew when a normal day would turn into a nightmare, except Moshe. Some days were calm and passed with little more than Egan’s usual disruptive defiance. Some days there were storm clouds circling Egan’s head, and Moshe seemed to be the only one who could see them. On those days, Moshe chose to walk back and forth along the back of the playground by himself as Egan chased and attacked his classmates. Moshe didn’t try to get involved anymore, even though he knew he was the only one who could stop Egan. The storm clouds were becoming a permanent fixture above Egan’s head, some days darker than others. On a day when the clouds weren’t so dark, Egan sat next to Moshe on the edge of the playground.

“The principal said I’m going to get kicked out of school soon,” Egan said quietly.

“Why?” Moshe asked.

“I don’t know. Everyone here hates me, they want me gone,” Egan explained.

“I don’t hate you,” Moshe said.

“We need to get out of here, Moshe. You and me, we don’t belong in a place like this. It’s no good for us,” Egan said.

“Where could we go?” Moshe asked.

Egan looked up into the clear blue sky. Moshe followed his gaze up to the faint white moon, like a faded dime at the top of the sky. 

“I read a book about the moon,” Egan said. “We should go there. That’s where we belong.”

“There’s no air on the moon. We’ll die,” Moshe responded, looking back down at the earth. 

Egan kept his neck craned up. 

“There’s a secret door that lets you inside the moon. That’s where all the kids like us live. We can go there and be happy and never have to see any of these dumb people again,” Egan explained. 

Moshe thought about this idea. The moon seemed like a nice place if everyone there was like him.

“How will we get there?” Moshe asked.

“Leave that to me. I’ve been wishing on a star every night for weeks,” Egan assured him. “We’re going to get out of here, Moshe.”

That night, as Moshe sat on his bed holding his favorite doll, the one with long red hair and a green dress, he heard a tap at his window. Wearing his teddy bear footie pajamas, Moshe crept towards the window and peeked out of the curtain. He was shocked to see his best friend’s face smiling ear to ear. Moshe pushed his window open and realized Egan was inside a small spaceship, no bigger than his mom’s minivan. 

“I told you! Didn’t I tell you!” Egan cheered.

“What is this?” Moshe asked, clutching his doll.

“It’s a spaceship from the moon kids. They heard my wish! Get in, we’re going to the moon!” Egan said, holding out his hand.

Moshe glanced warily at the spaceship. Everything looked clean and new, with two seats at the front facing a huge windshield. A TV hung on one of the padded walls with two kid sized space suits hanging below it. 

“Let me grab some things,” Moshe said. 

He emptied his school backpack on the floor and filled it with his favorite doll, his treasured The Little Mermaid DVD, and his glasses case. Egan helped him climb through the window and into the spaceship. 

The door to the spaceship closed behind him, but nothing else happened. 

“How do we get it to go?” Moshe asked.

“I don’t know. When I got in it just went to your house, I didn’t have to do anything,” Egan said. 

Suddenly the TV flickered on, displaying a sentence in bright orange letters.

“What does it say?” Moshe asked.

“‘What makes you special will take you far,’” Egan read. “What does that mean?”

Moshe repeated the phrase to himself. 

“Oh! I know!” Moshe exclaimed and then belted out the chorus of “Part of Your World” from The Little Mermaid movie. 

Immediately, the spaceship jolted and shuddered, lifting away from Moshe’s bedroom window. Egan, who had never heard Moshe sing before, gaped in awe.

“Keep singing!” Egan shouted.

“Wanderin’ free, wish I could be,” Moshe sang at the top of his lungs. “Part of your wooorrrld!”

“Yes! Yes!” Egan shouted as the spaceship soared over the neighborhoods towards the deep black sky. 

The message on the TV transformed into a new phrase with green letters.

“It says to take a seat and enjoy the ride,” Egan said. “We did it!”

Smiling ear to ear, Egan and Moshe sank into the plush chairs facing the enormous windshield. They watched home disappear below them, felt their stomachs float as they fled gravity’s grasp. The windshield washed white and gray as they soared through the clouds until all they could see was black emptiness and a perfect white circle in the distance. Moshe dozed off with the gentle rocking of the spaceship. He dreamed he was emerging from the ocean with legs for the first time. On the shore he kept trying to stand up but couldn’t. He awoke to Egan reading a message on the TV screen.

“It says we should put on our space suits,” Egan said. 

Egan and Moshe helped each other put the heavy suits over their pajamas. Miraculously, both suits were a perfect fit. The TV blinked again.

“It says to prepare for landing!” Egan squealed. Moshe slid his backpack onto his shoulders and clipped the chest strap securely.

Hardly able to contain their excitement, the boys vibrated with anticipation in their chairs. Moshe had never left his hometown, and now he was on the moon with his best friend! They squeezed their eyes shut as the cratered surface of the moon approached, but the spaceship landed delicately with little more than a shake. Moshe was afraid to open his eyes until he felt Egan squeezing his hand.

“We’re here Moshe. We’re on the moon,” Egan whispered, handing Moshe his helmet. 

Moshe screwed his helmet onto his suit and followed Egan out the open doors. As soon as Egan stepped out of the spaceship, he leapt like he had wings. He soared several yards away from the ship, whooping and laughing the whole way.

“You gotta try this Moshe!” he yelled. 

Egan’s voice exploded in Moshe’s ear through a small speaker in his helmet.

“I can hear you! You’re too loud!” Moshe yelled back.

“Now you’re too loud!” Egan yelled back. “Just jump!”

“Ok! Stop yelling,” Moshe said before stepping his foot out of the spaceship. For some reason, he still expected to be pulled down to the ground. He had been the exception for everything he had ever known, why would gravity be any different? 

Instead, Moshe floated. With a delighted giggle, he flailed his limbs and made his way towards Egan. As light as a feather, Moshe landed next to his best friend. The two chased each other in slow motion along the craters, bouncing with exaggerated leaps. They had never felt so free, like outer space was welcoming them. Neither boy could stop smiling. Eventually, they exhausted themselves and rested beside the spaceship.

“So what now?” Moshe asked.

“I read in a book there’s a trap door somewhere out here,” Egan explained. “It will lead us to the moon kids.”

“Well where is it?” Moshe asked, looking around.

“It’s on the dark side,” Egan said. 

Moshe gulped. 

“C’mon, let’s go together,” Egan said, getting up. Moshe followed.

The boys leapt over craters until they could no longer see Earth or their spaceship looming over their shoulder. The dark side of the moon wasn’t dark at all, except for the endless blackness opening all around them. It was eerily quiet and suspiciously peaceful. Moshe couldn’t imagine children living in a place like this, surely he would have heard them by now. Suddenly, the silence was broken when Egan landed with a thud. The boys barely registered the perfect square door on the ground before it flew open. Out of the hatch popped a little girl who looked just like any girl on Earth except her skin was electric blue and her eyes glowed like neon lights. Her silver jumpsuit sparkled despite the lack of light. 

“Heroes from Earth, are you able to understand my language?” she asked. 

“Yes,” Egan said.

“Follow me,” she instructed. 

Without hesitation, Egan and Moshe followed the girl through the square hatch. Beneath the surface of the moon, they no longer enjoyed the perks of antigravity. The girl began explaining how her people had created artificial gravity, but the boys were too busy taking in their surroundings. At first they couldn’t see anything, but as their eyes adjusted they realized they were standing at the top of a staircase high above a thriving city of blue people. Cone shaped buildings arranged in four rings guided the flow of the city in perfect circles. The inside of the moon domed overhead, glowing bright on one side so there was no centralized light source, just one big wall of ethereal white. 

“This is awesome,” Egan whispered. 

“You can take your helmets off. There is oxygen in here,” the girl said. 

Reluctantly, Moshe and Egan removed their helmets, but to their relief, found they could breathe. The three kids descended the long staircase towards the city. 

“Where are we going?” Egan asked.

“We call it the Chamber of Infinite Wisdom, but on Earth I believe it’s called a library,” the girl said.

Egan and Moshe smiled at each other. The library was the only part of school where they ever felt peace. 

“What’s your name?” Moshe asked.

“You may call me Orisa,” she answered. “I know your names already. We’ve been watching you for a long time.”

“Why?” both boys asked in unison.

Orisa stopped and turned around. Her green eyes shone like stars.

“We have been studying the Earth kids for a very long time and found that you two see the world differently from them all. When we discovered that you two were best friends, we knew you could help us,” Orisa explained.

“Help you with what?” Egan asked.

“I can’t say out here. Everything will be explained in the Chamber of Infinite Wisdom.”

The staircase ended at the base of a huge amethyst cone building. Orisa placed her hand on the smooth surface and a door opened. She led the boys down a dark narrow hallway to a huge room with more books than Egan or Moshe could have ever fathomed to exist. Neat shelves of books curved with the walls of the building and stretched all the way up to the pointed ceiling, creating a circular labyrinth. 

“This is amazing,” Egan whispered under his breath. Moshe could only nod. For the first time in his life, he wished he knew how to read. 

At the center of the maze of bookshelves was a round table at which sat three more blue kids. They wore silver robes made out of the same material as Orisa’s jumpsuit. The blue boy in the middle had orange eyes so bright it was hard to look directly at him. 

“Egan and Moshe, I am Terzar. This is Octavo and Geldie. We are The Counsel,” the blue kid with orange eyes boomed in a surprisingly deep voice. “Welcome to the Moon. We are in desperate need of your assistance.”

“Our portal has closed,” Octavo said. Three pink crystals glittered on his forehead matching his glowing pink eyes. 

“Without the portal, we are unable to venture to other planets within the galaxy to gather our necessary provisions,” Geldie said. Thin silver lines moved and sparkled across his blue face like comet trails. His eyes glimmered silver when he talked and faded to gray when he was silent. 

“The portal is necessary for maintaining intergalactic relationships, but more importantly our Moon Ambassadors will not be able to return until the portal is reopened,” Terzar explained. “If anyone enters a portal on another planet in an attempt to re enter through this one, they will be caught in the void of the space time continuum, and without swift action, they could be lost forever.”

Egan and Moshe didn’t understand most of the vocabulary being used, but they understood the gist: this was an emergency. 

“How did the portal close?” Egan asked.

“It is a very rare occurrence that a portal closes, so few understand the phenomenon,” Geldie said. “This portal closed right before my eyes, and this was left in its place.”

Geldie lifted his hand and the center of the table opened in a perfect circle. From the circle rose hundreds of crystals levitating in the air in a tight pattern like a chandelier.

“These crystals are from the planet Neptune. We believe it to be some sort of code. Every mathematician, scientist, philosopher, teacher and scholar on the moon has attempted to crack this code but no one has succeeded. Our resources are very limited and dwindling quickly. You are our last hope,” Geldie explained.

“How are we supposed to crack a code of crystals? Isn’t a code supposed to be something written down with symbols and numbers or something?” Egan asked.

“Egan, when you were five years old, you escaped from your school classroom a total of eleven times. When most of your peers were learning how to write their names, you memorized the schedules of the employees at your school and strategized multiple escape routes. You have outsmarted dozens of trained adults on your planet before you have even lived a decade,” Terzar said.

“I’ve never done anything like that. I can’t even read,” Moshe huffed.

“I have read every book in this Chamber of Infinite Wisdom, but none of them enabled me to master aesthetics the way you have, Moshe. The importance of beautiful things is being quickly forgotten on your planet, but it is the beautiful things that connect the heart to the soul. Your understanding of colors, shapes and patterns will allow you to create much needed loveliness in the universe,” Terzar said. 

Moshe puffed up his chest, even though he didn’t know what the word ‘aesthetics’ meant, no one had ever given him such a high compliment. He had always loved pretty things, but he never knew it was so necessary. 

“We will crack this code and get your portal open,” Egan promised.

“We will leave you to your work,” Terzar said. Everyone left and Egan and Moshe were alone with the levitating crystals. 

“How are we going to crack this code?” Moshe wondered.

“I don’t know. Have you ever cracked a code before?” Egan asked.

Moshe shook his head.

“Me neither,” Egan said. “Let’s get started.”

 The crystals were more dazzling than anything either boy had seen on earth. All different shapes and sizes, each emanating a soft rainbow aura.  Egan and Moshe circled around the table, trying to see if different viewpoints would enlighten them. 

“I don’t know what this is supposed to mean. Do you have any idea?” Egan asked.

“I can’t even read a regular book, I don’t know how I’m supposed to crack this code,” Moshe muttered. He was annoyed at the aliens for dragging him all this way just to do something he couldn’t do. 

Egan squatted on top of the table squinting at the crystal configuration. Moshe crossed his arms and scoffed.

“What?” Egan asked.

“They expect us to read it when the crystals aren’t even in the right order,” Moshe answered, even more annoyed now.

“What do you mean? What order?” 

Moshe threw his hands up, exasperated. 

“Well if they would just put them right!” he huffed, climbing onto the table.

Moshe reached his hands into the helix and began rearranging the sparkling rocks. The crystals hung mid-air as if secured in an invisible spider web, but when Moshe’s fingers touched the crystals, blue sparks ignited and the crystal held onto him like velcro. Wherever Moshe placed a crystal, it stayed and shone rainbow prisms in every direction. 

“There! See, that looks way better,” Moshe said.

Egan gaped at the new configuration before him. Moshe had laid all of the crystals on a flat plane in a Fibonacci-sequence mandala, the pattern repeating itself outwards in perfect symmetry. The rainbow prisms overlapped creating concentrated pools of perfect color.

No sooner had Egan recovered from his rare loss of words that the entire mandala filled with incredibly bright rainbow light, pulsing with an intense heat. Egan and Moshe felt a physical tug towards the light and each took an involuntary step forward. 

“What’s happening?” Egan screamed.

“I don’t know! What’s the code? What’s the code!” Moshe screeched as the boys tumbled after each other into the open pool of light swirling at the center of the table. 

For a moment, they were blinded and the air left their lungs. Every sense was overwhelmed beyond interpretation. It took several moments before they realized they weren’t standing on anything. They fought to regain their sense of vision, and as their eyes adjusted, they saw dark shapes approaching them.

“Are you ok?” one of the shapes asked.

Egan was the first to realize that these shapes were moon kids like Orisa. Four blue kids blinked their bright eyes at Egan and Moshe. 

“Where are we?” Egan asked.

“You’re in between,” one of the kids said. 

Moshe looked around. Everything was hazy, like they were standing in a cloud. There were no distinct features of the area around them, not even a flat surface to stand on or a horizon between ground and sky. Colors changed fluidly, like they were inside a rainbow. Moshe couldn’t even pinpoint what color he was surrounded by before the next one began to leak into the space around him. 

“Why are you all here?” Moshe asked.

“We were trying to go through the portal but we got stuck here,” the same kid answered. 

“How do we get out?” Moshe asked, an edge of panic creeping into his voice.

The kids all shrugged.

“Can we look around?” Egan asked.

“It’s all like this, there is nowhere to go,” another kid said. 

Egan shook his head. 

“No, there has to be something. Let’s all split up and look in different directions,” Egan declared. 

Moshe and Egan moved their feet like they were walking, even though they weren’t standing on a solid surface. They felt a tug similar to the one emitted by the crystal code. Eventually, the kids disappeared behind them into the pink and orange haze. After some time, perhaps minutes, perhaps hours, an incredibly bright glowing orb appeared, the size of a hula-hoop, so luminous the boys held up their hands and squinted between their fingers. Around the orb were all the moon kids. 

“What is this?” one moon kid asked. 

No one could answer. The orb flickered suddenly and then shrunk inwards slightly. As Moshe stared into the light, he felt something warm in his chest and he saw his mother’s face in the orb. An overwhelming sense of longing washed over him as he realized how far away he was from his family. Moshe looked to Egan. Egan was staring at the orb, mesmerized.

“What do you see?” Moshe whispered to him.

“I see myself, laughing, happy, free,” Egan murmured.

The orb shrunk inwards again. With every contraction, all the kids were pulled towards it a little more. 

“I don’t think it’s supposed to be shrinking,” Egan said finally.

The other kids broke their gaze away from the orb to look at Egan.

“I think it needs something,” Egan continued.

“We don’t have anything,” one kid said.

The orb shuddered and shrunk again. Moshe unzipped his backpack and pulled out his favorite doll, the one with the red hair and emerald green dress. He kissed the doll’s face and then without hesitation, tossed it into the light. All of the kids, including Egan, gasped.

The orb swallowed the doll and then grew brighter, stretching beams of light out like eager hands. Elation and satisfaction filled Moshe, the same feeling as when he first unboxes a doll, as if he hadn’t just given one away. Just as soon as the sensation filled him completely, the orb contracted once more and the feeling evaporated.

“What was that?” Egan asked. “That was incredible. Did anyone else feel that?” 

The other kids nodded. 

“Why? Why did we all feel like that when the light got bright?” one of the moon kids asked.

The orb now showed him a vision of pages in a book. However, the incoherent scribbles didn’t infuriate him, instead he could visualize the meaning conveyed by the words. 

“Because it wants something really good, I think,” Moshe said. “Something important.”

“Something important?” Egan said, grinning from ear to ear.

Moshe turned to look at him and recognized the mischievous expression with horror.

“Egan, no. That’s not what I meant,” Moshe pleaded.

“No, I think you’re right. That would make sense, whatever this is, my guess is that it needs something pretty awesome to eat,” Egan reasoned, his blue eyes shining. “Wherever this takes me, it’s where I belong, I’m sure of that.”

Before Moshe or any of the moon kids could stop him, Egan flung himself into the light. The orb swallowed him and then burst with a blinding bright wave of heat. Every cell in Moshe’s body felt compressed through a needle, then for a fraction of a moment, there was nothing at all. With a smack painful enough to remind him of his own existence, Moshe landed hard on his face on a flat surface. He had never been so grateful to taste his blood.

“Moshe! Moshe! Where’s Egan? What happened? Are you ok?” 

Moshe heard Orisa’s voice before he was able to open his eyes and focus. Eventually, he lifted his throbbing head and looked around. He was back in the Chamber of Infinite Wisdom, laying on the table where the crystals had been, except now the table was one solid surface without the opening in the middle. The four other moon kids lay on the table around him, slowly waking up. Orisa’s glowing green eyes watched over him. Egan was nowhere to be found.

“Moshe! You’re ok! You’re safe, it’s ok!” Orisa cried. 

Moshe didn’t realize he was rocking his body wildly until he felt Orisa’s warm arms around him. He relaxed into her embrace and started to cry. One by one, each of the moon kids joined the hug. Despite his confused grief, Moshe had never felt so safe. 

After the Counsel heard Moshe’s full story, they flew around the library, pulling heavy books off the shelves and bringing them back to the table to pour through the pages. Moshe sat very still next to Orisa as the Counsel murmured softly to each other and pointed at various pages in their books. Eventually, Terzar came over to Moshe and placed a small blue hand on his shoulder.

“Egan’s sacrifice was not in vain,” Terzar said.

“What happened to him? Where is he?” Moshe asked.

“That light orb you described was, to the best of our knowledge, the Entropic Source for our breadth of the Universe,” Terzar explained.

Moshe blinked at him blankly.

“Our Universe runs on chaos, randomness, entropy,” Terzar tried again. “But that energy is not infinite, in fact, had Egan not sacrificed himself at the very moment he did, the entire Universe could have contracted into itself. Time would have reversed backwards until the very beginning, and everything we’ve ever known would disappear as if it never existed.”

“So he’s gone?” 

“Not necessarily. As you may have guessed, not just anyone could have satisfied the needs of the Entropic Source, but the magnitude of energy that your friend provided has not been absorbed in such a great quantity in a very long time.”

“So where is he?” 

“He’s here, with us,” Terzar said. “He is the light that shines through the moon. He is the feeling in your chest before you do something brave. He is the flow of time through the Universe itself.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Moshe, what I think Terzar is trying to say is that Egan may not be here in the same way as before, but he’s still here,” Orisa tried. 

Moshe nodded. He wanted to scream and cry, deny everything Terzar said and demand he find a way for Egan to come back, but instead he said, “I’m ready to go home now.”

“Moshe,” Geldie said, stepping forward, his silver eyes soft. “Thank you. You have saved us all.”

Orisa prepared the return rocket, an egg shaped vessel with only enough space inside for a bean bag seat. Moshe curled into a ball in the seat. The four moon kids, the Counsel and Orisa crowded around the entrance to the rocket. Sixteen glowing eyes of all different colors gazed at him with dazzling luminescence, seemingly brighter than before but Moshe was too tired to be sure. Afraid if he opened his mouth he would never be able to stop whatever wail might escape, Moshe raised his hand and waved. The eight moon kids waved back. Then the door of the rocket closed, and in less than sixty seconds, Moshe was soaring through space. He drifted off into a deep dreamless sleep.

In the morning, Moshe awoke in his bed, in his footie pajamas, tucked in with the covers to his chin. He didn’t remember arriving home the night before. His mother poked her head in his bedroom to make sure he was awake and told him breakfast was ready downstairs. Moshe was usually quiet, so no one thought to ask if anything was wrong. At school, the entire fourth grade was buzzing with the news that Egan had transferred to another elementary school. No one asked Moshe how he felt about it, and Moshe didn’t say anything to anyone. For a whole week he didn’t speak at all. His teacher noticed his silence, but under the circumstances, didn’t push him. 

When Moshe finally spoke, it was to a classmate he had known since kindergarten, who had always been a bit odd. The girl sat on the edge of the playground, playing with leaves and sticks on the ground. 

“Look at the moon,” Moshe said, pointing up at the clean crescent, as clear as if it were a white curve of paint on a blue canvas.  

“I love the moon,” she said, smiling. “The moon makes me feel less alone.”

“Me too,” Moshe said.

“Do you want to play with me? I’m making fairy houses,” she offered.

“Fairy houses? With sticks and leaves? The fairies need more than that,” Moshe scoffed, smiling. “We need something pretty for them, like flowers.”

“Ooo good idea!” the girl agreed. 

Together they set off to pick flowers along the fence, and Moshe began to feel a little bit better.