“Is that right?” he asked in a tone that said he didn’tbelievethem.
“It’s true, sir,”Daisysaid.
“Well then, where are all the huckleberries?” his dadasked.
Shit.
“Never mind.” His dad waved a hand through the air. “Today’s going to be a historic day. I came out here to invite you, River, and Meadow to watch the moon landing. Can you believe that? Men are going to walk on the moon and they’re going to broadcast it on thenews,live.”
“Really?” she said withexcitement.
“They’re supposed to be broadcasting it live on CBS,” hisdadsaid.
Greg hadn’t heard him this enthusiastic about anything in years. Good, at least he wouldn’t chew them out for obviously not gatheringberries.
“What time should we come in?” Daisyasked.
“Eight p.m. It’s going to happen sometime after that but I don’t want you to miss it,” hisdadsaid.
“Thank you, sir,” she said. “We wouldn’t miss it for theworld.”
“All right then, I’ll see you tonight.” His dad turned and strolled toward the house. He gazed up in the sky as if looking forthemoon.
“I’ve never seen him so…giddy before,”shesaid.
“He only gets like that when he’s reallyhappy.”
“It is pretty amazing that we’re putting a man on the moontoday.”
“Anything’s possible,” he saidwistfully.
If they could send a man hundreds of thousands of miles away from Earth, then maybe he could find a way to make Daisy want to be with him again. He’d stop at nothing to make it happen. If he could find a way to make her accept his bear, then they could have a future together. But if he couldn’t…he sighed. He didn’t want to think about lifewithouther.
* * *
That evening,Daisy sat on the floor in front of the couch in Greg’s living room. Andy, River, and Meadow sat to her left, while Greg sat to her right. Aaron and Samantha had crammed themselves onto the couch next to theirparents.
“It’s kind of fuzzy,”Samanthasaid.
Daisy studied the grainy gray and white video. She couldn’t really see the spaceship, but Walter Cronkite, the news anchorman, had described the image. She squinted at the shadowy outline of Neil Armstrong as he descended theladder.
“I'm at the foot of the ladder,” the astronaut said. “The LM footpads are only depressed in the surface about one or two inches, although the surface appears to be very, very fine grained, as you get close to it. It's almost like a powder. Ground mass isveryfine.”
“Can you believe he’s standing someplace no human has ever been before?” Betty askedinawe.
“Shh,” Greg’s dad said. “Ican’thear.”
“Okay. I'm going to step off the LM now,” Armstrong said. He descended the final rung on the ladder and stood on the surface of the moon. “That's one small step for man; one giant leap formankind.”
Daisy slid her hand across the carpet, stopping when it brushed against Greg’s thigh. She wanted to hold his hand while a man walked across the surface of the moon but she couldn’t. Greg’s dad wouldfreakout.
As she continued to watch the broadcast, she almost couldn’t believe it. A man was actually standing on the huge white globe that glowed in the night sky. She would have given anything in that moment to know what Neil Armstrong was thinking as he stepped off the ladder. If it had been her, she would havefreaked.
“Yes, the surface is fine and powdery,” Armstrong said. “I can kick it up loosely with my toe. It does adhere in fine layers, like powdered charcoal, to the sole and sides of my boots. I only go in a small fraction of an inch, maybe an eighth of an inch, but I can see the footprints of my boots and the treads in the fine, sandyparticles.”
“They’re supposed to collect some rock samples and bring it back,”Andysaid.
“I wonder if they’re going to run into aliens,”Riversaid.
