Loony

Luna came over to my house last night. (It wasn't quite dark out yet because it's summer, but it was still late evening. Later than I think Luna is allowed out.) She didn't knock on the door or anything, just stood outside — I guess she was waiting for me to notice her. I didn't know she was out there until my dad came up to my room and told me, "I think Luna's outside."

I went out to talk to her. "Hey, you're out late. Is everything alright?"

Luna shrugged.

"Do your parents know you're over here?"

"I left a note," Luna said.

"Do you know that they actually saw the note?"

Luna just shrugged again. The evening air was chilly, but she was just wearing a tank top and shorts — no sweater, and no shoes.

I had no idea what was going on and why she was there, and I wasn't sure how to ask that without seeming rude.

"Maybe you should call home," I tried. "Just so your parents know you're over here."

She nodded. I went inside and got the phone. Luna followed me and watched as I dialed. I tried to hand her the phone, but she pushed it away. "You tell them."

Luna's dad answered the phone. "Hello?"

"Hi," I said, "it's Jack. Luna's over at my house, and she's okay. I just wanted to be sure you knew."

There was a brief silence. When Luna's dad spoke again, he sounded surprised. "Luna's at your house?"

"Yes. She walked over here."

"Can I talk to her?"

I held the phone out to Luna, who took it reluctantly.

"Hi, Dad," she said. "Yeah. No, I'm alright. I just wanted to take a walk, Dad, I left you a note. Yeah. Yeah, okay. Sorry. Okay. Bye."

She hung up.

"Dad's gonna come pick me up," she told me.

"Okay," I said, still confused.

Luna didn't say anything for a minute. Then, "He sounded worried about me."

"Well, yeah," I said, surprised, "of course he is. You wandered off and he didn't know where you were."

"I used to go places by myself all the time when I lived in Manhattan," Luna said.

"There's public transportation in Manhattan. That's different."

"My parents are weird," Luna continued, ignoring me. "They've gotten so much more protective of me since we moved here."

"They don't strike me as the particularly protective sort."

"I'm not supposed to be out after dark," Luna told me, "and they make me lock my bedroom door at night."

The last bit seemed weird. "Why? There haven't been any burglaries lately, have there?"

"I used to be allowed to stay out after dark," Luna said. She stared out the window dejectedly. "I liked going out at night. I like seeing the moon."

"You could always look in the mirror, Loony," I teased her, trying to lighten the mood. The joke sounded dumb, even to me, and I was glad when she didn't acknowledge it.

"I used to take lots of pictures of the moon," Luna told me. "All the different phases. Did you know the moon is..." she paused, searching for the right word, "tidally locked to the earth? You only ever see one side of it. There's a whole other half of the moon we can't see."

"Everyone knows that," I said.

"But isn't that weird? We get to see the moon all the time, but there's a whole other side that no one gets to see."

"Some people are like that," I told her.

"No," Luna said decisively, "I don't think so. People try to keep things hidden but they aren't as good at hiding their other side as the moon is."

"You sure seem to know a lot about the moon."

"I'm named after the moon." Luna rocked back and forth on her heels. "I guess that's why I like it so much."

I didn't say anything.

"It's just so weird that there's a whole other world right out there and only a few people have been there."

"It's not the nicest place to go to," I pointed out. "No air. Not much gravity. Take off your spacesuit and you'll either burn or freeze to death."

"The people who've been to the moon, do you think they've ever seen its dark side?"

I frowned. "I don't know. I'd have to look it up."

Luna's dad showed up then. He was wearing another one of his band T-shirts (this one proclaiming him to be a fan of The Killers) and another pair of what looked like pajama pants. At this hour, I suppose it was somewhat justified.

"Hi, Jackie," he said to me. "Hi, Cerise," to my mother, who had just entered the room. "Ready to go?" he asked Luna.

"Sure you don't want to stay and have a drink?" my mother asked, smiling brightly at him.

He scratched his head. "Nah, I gotta get back to work. Thanks."

He gestured to Luna, who followed him out the door reluctantly. I waved, but she didn't turn to look.