Meet the Man in the Moon – Eugene

Jerome kicked out the side stand and shut the growl off the Harley. It was only a five minute ride from the council depot, barely enough time for the big motor to warm up, so he usually got home just after 5pm. He stood up and swung one leg over the bike, standing with legs apart, and braced himself for the attack. Audrey launched her 45 kg missile of fur and fangs straight at him, then the big Weimaraner circled around and put her head under his elbow to snuggle in close. Jerome was thankful this breed were not crutch lickers as the idea of those teeth so close to his vital parts was scary. Audrey completed the welcome by winding her lean body around him and leant into the back of his knees until they popped forward. Then dropping her body weight on to his calves and he toppled forward and face planted into the grass. With one paw in the small of his back she licked his face and maintained eye  contact 100mm away, the length of her nose. Finally, she rolled over for a belly rub until, Audrey had enough, let him stand up and wander into the house.

“Hey dude”  Matilda greeted him, looking up from her laptop.

“Jerome to you” he grinned knowing she had been studying hard and needed a break.

“Hungry?” he asked picking up the routine they followed at the end of a week day.

“Is the pope a catholic?” she laughed

“Does a bear shit in the woods?” he gave the obligatory reply and set about preparations for dinner.

Matilda looked back at her computer screen and frowned, she often did that and Jerome did not like to ask why. He figured it best to make himself useful and let her do the brainy stuff so she could pass the uni exams.

 

“Grubs up” he shouted to Matilda and she mumbled something, before moving away from the study desk and sitting at the small table, waiting for dinner to be delivered. She had the 1,000 yard stare and Jerome knew he would have to do some serious prompting if they were to have any conversation at all.

“Full moon tonight” he observed hoping to get her attention away from studies.

“We could check out the man in the moon?” he joked.

Matilda smiled and looked away.

“What?” Jerome asked feeling exasperated.

“His name is Eugene”.

“Holy snapping fedoolies, you know the man in the moon on a first name basis” Jerome hammed it up.

It worked.

Matilda positively grinned.

“I know of him, but I was never lucky enough to meet him”

Jerome sighed “Look this is not 50 questions. You know all this great stuff so how about you tell me and I will listen. But don’t use any big words” he said laughingly.

She was using the last piece of potato to wipe the plate clean and after popping it into her mouth placed her knife and fork together to signal the end of her meal. Jerome was still eating.

“He was a geologist who died in Alice Springs….” she started

Jerome had a mouth full of food but couldn’t hold back

“You are shitting me? The man in the moon died in Alice Springs? What was he doing? Joining a corroboree?”

“I knew you couldn’t keep your mouth shut” she jibbed.

“OK OK” he signaled a pretend zipper on his mouth and kept chewing.

“Before he died, he started the science of studying planets, separate to the stars. He helped us understand the differences between planets, including earth”

Jerome noticed the referral to “us” and took that as a good sign, she felt part of the science tribe.

Pressing on “He is best known for the work he did with Carolyn, his wife when they discovered a comet that was named after them, the Shoemaker-Levy 9. Their surname was Shoemaker”

Jerome finished eating “So can we see the comet tonight?”

“No” Matilda pursed her lips “Unless you watch You Tube, it crashed into Jupiter in 1994, NASA was able to video it”

“How do you know all this stuff?” he was genuinely awed.

She didn’t answer directly but went on “Anyway he kept looking at meteor craters on earth as well as atomic bomb sites and noticed the craters on the moon looked the same so they were not volcanoes ”.

“No shit Sherlock” Jerome commented thinking that would be obvious.

“But on his field trip to the Wolf Meterorite Crater in the Northern Territory he pranged head on into another vehicle and he was killed”

Jerome looked at Matilda not wanting to interrupt; now the subject was serious.

“After he was cremated there was a big community effort to recognize his work and to cut a long story short; NASA loaded a brass capsule with his ashes and shot it at the moon”

She pushed her chair back and walked over to her desk to pull a tattered sheet of paper off the pinboard.

“Did you know” she read “He is the only person whose remains have been placed on a celestial body outside earth”

Matilda’s voice wavered emotionally “And the capsule is engraved with a quote from Romeo and Juliette”

And, when he shall die
Take him and cut him out in little stars
And he will make the face of heaven so fine
That all the world will be in love with night
And pay no worship to the garish sun.

She looked at the tears in Jerome’s eyes.

“Did you like that?”

“No….the dog farted” he blurted, running outside for fresh air and to gaze at the moon.