The Sullen Moon Drops the Light

Short Story

It was two AM and clear, and the moon shone down as if by a torch. The young man looked from a bedroom window up towards the space and wondered what he had done wrong. He didn’t know if he had said anything wrong. He didn’t know if he had done anything wrong. And yet the girl turned away as if she had something else to do. Or perhaps there was nothing else to do and that was enough.

He stood alone in the daylight watching the back side of her blond head moving away. He thought he saw her moving her hand to grasp another man’s hand, but he was not sure. The other girls moved with her: a dark one from India, a light one from Eastern Europe, and someone whose color could not be placed who moved between the ethnicities with a leaden grace. The brown one looked back but then corrected her site to match the blonde one. It was clear that the blonde one was the dominant female of the particular group and all who were around her looked first at her and then at what she wanted them to look at.

But there he stood perhaps for enough time so that anyone looking would know that he had been rejected. It was only then that he realized he had dropped her picture like a noob.

But now in the darker night, he stared at the last quarter moon, along with the bats, cats, and owls that it shined for. He looked at the picture of the school year. And sort out the girls whose eyes looked back at two the camera. There were all complexions and styles of hair each one suggesting the nature of the person behind, but all he could look at was the blonde who was smiling back at the camera. He sighed even though it was dark in the bedroom, and he did not see everything that he wanted.

But he looked down at the driveway but there was no comfort in the collection of automobiles which stood motionless until a driver would activate them. He had a learner’s permit but that only allowed him to drive when an adult would sit inside the passenger’s seat. Which in his case was only for driving to the grocery store and the gasoline station.

Then he heard the baby downstairs and his mother soothing the cries. What this meant to him was that he was alone because his parents paid all of their attention to the young child who did not have even teeth yet. He flopped again to see the moon somewhat higher in the sky. But it had no wisdom which it chose to impart.

He then went downstairs because he knew that his parents were awake with the child. His mother did not look up but had her gaze fixed on the child but his father looked up and could see distress on his son’s face. He got up from the recliner and went to the door and then passed it to the kitchen. The young man went with him and they both settled down in the stools against the further wall. Neither one wanted to disturb the mother or have her over their conversation.

“What’s wrong?” it was the blunt voice of his father in baritone modulation.

“Who said anything is wrong?”

“I did. So again, I ask what is wrong?” His father had a glint of amusement at his joke. At least one person was amused.

The young man hemmed and hawed and looked like a jackass in the process. But then he spoke: “There is a girl that I like.”

“Does she like you?” There was a pause and before the young man could answer  his father continued: “That is rough, liking someone who does not like you is truly a painful experience.” The young man waited. And his father finished: “I would just go on and buck up.”

This mini-speech did not help the young man. But his face did not betray this, or so he thought. They cleared the kitchen, and the father went back to the mother and the child. The young men went back upstairs and saw that the moon was still climbing in the sky. He muttered about why the moon was so sullen and would not give advice on this most important morning.

The moon glided higher, and the young man went to sleep against the window looking out at the Maple trees in the other yard’s back lawn.

He was woken up by his father telling him to get dressed. The young man realized that there was no time for a shower.

At the school bus, he boarded. The blonde-haired girl was not present only the gaggle of her friends. He ignored all of them and only stared out the window with a dejected air on his face. When he went to school, he was the last person to leave the bus. He didn’t care who was in front of him and he took his book bag and went to his class and said himself on the back row towards the door which screamed “Out! Out! Out!”

Then he saw the moon against the profile of the bridge that they had crossed and the litter of buildings that once held factories and were now apartments. He counted the windows on one apartment for his amusement. Of course, he was not listening to the lecture about one thing and another. If asked he could not even name the subject.

Then there was another class which was the same thing on a different subject. The teacher called on him, but he did not know the answer. But nothing was done because most of the students were in the same position of not knowing anything about anything.

Then the day wore on and he was about to take the bus and then something happened: the girl from India whose name he did not quite remember, sat next to him. At first, he did not look at her. But then he looked left and saw that her eyes were fixed on his.

Then she spoke: “You dropped this picture.” But she held it with two fingers as if it were an item of disgust.

He looked at it he looked at her and then he realized that just because an individual is the Alpha does not mean that they control the emotions of all who are with them.