Luna

I went over to Luna's house. Their car wasn't in the driveway, and no one answered when I knocked on the door. I was about to turn around and go home when I thought that maybe Luna was outside; it was a nice day, after all. So I headed over to the pond.

I can't remember if I've described the pond here before, but I'll describe it again if I have to. It's a large pond, roughly oval-shaped, surrounded by cattails at one end and with a large weeping willow occupying much of the space at the other end. This isn't really a pond you'd want to go swimming in; the surface of the water is largely coated with algae. (Once some neighborhood kids tried to go swimming in it when I was over at Luna's house. The two of us watched from her window as they got absolutely covered in slime and muck. The kids never came back after that.)

Anyway, Luna was there, down by the weeping willow. Not sitting on a branch like she was when I first met her; just standing underneath it, leaning against its trunk.

I said hello to her, but she didn't seem to hear me at first. She finally looked up, seemingly startled, when I was standing right in front of her.

"I'm back from vacation," I said to her, which seemed a bit silly to point out. "How're you?"

"Fine," Luna said absently, not looking at me.

"Hey, I'm sorry I didn't reply to all your emails. I was pretty busy on the trip."

"With Erin?" Luna asked. She still wasn't looking at me. She was staring out across the water at the other end of the pond, almost like she could see something there that I couldn't.

"Yeah, with Erin." I started to wonder if she was mad at me for not writing back, or jealous that I'd been spending time with another friend instead of with her. "What've you been doing while I was away?"

She finally looked at me then, but didn't say anything for a while. Suddenly, she took a step forward and threw her arms around me, hugging me tight. I was caught off-guard and didn't say anything.

"I'm glad you're back," Luna said, with her face pressed against me.

"I missed you," I said awkwardly.

She released me from the hug, then, taking me by the hand, started to pull me away from the pond. When I realized she was leading me in the direction of her old house, I was hesitant, but she tugged on my arm harder. "Come on."

I'd never actually been over to Luna's old house before. There's barely anything left standing; just the blackened foundation. Plants are starting to reclaim it already. Now that I was up close to it, I was having trouble imagining that it could ever have been a house. I barely remembered what the house had looked like; though I'd been down Luna's street prior to knowing her, I never had any real reason to pay attention to an unremarkable house at the end of a cul-de-sac.

For Luna, though, I imagine she must have been able to envision her old house all too vividly.

She didn't say anything to me, just walked around to one side of the house and stood staring as if in a trance. I came around to stand next to her. She must have been standing right where the front door used to be; I could see charred pieces of what looked like a doorframe.

"Are you okay?" I asked after a while.

"Yeah," Luna said slowly, drawing the word out. "I just..." She took a deep breath. "I need to come over here sometimes, so I can see it. You know? Otherwise sometimes I forget that it's..."

She gestured to the burned ruins.

"I wanted you to see it," Luna said, looking straight at me. Her gray eyes were almost unnervingly serious. "I mean, how it used to be, before it burned down. But I guess I can't show you that."

"You could show me pictures," I ventured.

She shook her head. "No. I don't like pictures. They never mean anything except to the people who took them."

I didn't really know what to say to that.

We headed back to Luna's house — her new one, that is. Donna had returned home in the interim. She seemed delighted to see me, and invited me in for a snack. Donna fixed Luna and I a plate of cheese and crackers, and I started telling Luna about my vacation. Luna didn't say much, just nodded to show she was listening. When I eventually ran out of things to say, I awkwardly excused myself, saying I had things to do at home, and left.

The truth was, I didn't have anything to do at home. I just felt like I needed to get away. I haven't felt like that in a long time, and it worries me. Luna worries me a little bit, too. She seemed almost like a stranger again today, like I couldn't quite reach her. I hope nothing bad happened while I was gone.