Once in a Blue Moon (5 page)

Melissa opened the
glass patio door, stepped onto the back porch and stood in the
darkness. She watched as Richard gave Jeremy pointers on using the
camera as he took a series of shots of the moon.

Obviously, they’d given
up on her coming outside, and obviously they didn’t need her. So
what was all the fuss about? Why was everyone so angry with her?
She wanted to turn around and go inside, but didn’t.

Jeremy finished taking
pictures and when he set the camera on the card table beside him,
glanced up, saw her, and smiled. “Mom, come on. I’m just about to
start.” He waved her over with one hand, his animosity apparently
forgotten.

Richard and Jessica sat
on a couple of chairs on the far side of the lawn, but didn’t
acknowledge her presence, even though they were turned toward her
so they could see the moon. There was a spare chair beside
Richard.

She stayed under the
eve on the back porch, out of the moonlight. She knew she should
move, but couldn’t seem to make herself. Something inside her,
anxiety or nervousness, kept her in place. She just couldn’t go out
there. Could not.

Richard finally spoke.
“Melissa?”

She shook her head. “I
can see just fine from here.”

In the light from the
moon, and even from the distance, she could see Richard’s
expression darken; he looked ready to blow.

Jessica raised her head. “Mother, just
get over here
.”

Melissa was surprised
by Jessica’s adult, caustic tone. Everyone was so angry. That she
could handle, did handle every day at work. But when she glimpsed
the hurt on Jeremy’s face, she felt guilty and, sighing heavily,
took a step. Fine. She would make herself do this.

Slowly she forced
herself to walk across the patio, but as she did her legs started
to shake and her heart pounded. She really was afraid. But the
expectation, the sense that they waited, kept her moving. When she
started writhing on the ground they’d be sorry.

She walked toward the
line on the grass separating shadow and moonlight and the hair on
the back of her neck stood up and goose bumps broke out on her
arms. She stopped just short of the moonlight, then forced herself
to step into it, watching as her shadow appeared on the grass.

She stopped and stood
very still. Nothing happened. She took another step and, lungs
burning from the breath she held, gasped for air as relief flooded
her. Legs still shaking, she hurried over to her family and,
feeling foolish, sat in the chair beside Richard. She
surreptitiously wiped at her damp forehead, and tried to regulate
her breathing. Richard didn’t look at her; Jessica didn’t look at
her; but Jeremy smiled, and she was glad she’d made the effort.

Jeremy took a deep
breath. “Okay.” He turned to a card table set up beside him, his
hand hovering over the contents: a flashlight, a papier-mache model
of the moon, several books, a notebook, and a poster board, which
he finally picked up and held so they could see.

Even in the dim light
she saw it was covered with hand-drawn moons in various stages of
lunar phase, dates written beside each one. At the bottom was a
time line, with more dates written in. He’d worked really hard on
this project.

He
cleared his throat importantly. “Okay, do I have a story for you.
Here’s the deal. Blue moons happen,” he turned on the flashlight
and pointed the beam at his notes on the table. “I mean,
they
occur
when
there are two full moons in the same month. Usually on the first
and the thirty-first day of the month. Any questions so far?” He
looked at Melissa.

Keeping her gaze
squarely on him to avoid looking at the moon, she shook her
head.

Richard raised a hand.
“I have a question.”

Jeremy looked delighted
and Melissa wished she’d thought of one. “Yes?”

“How often do blue
moons occur, and can they be predicted?”

Jeremy pointed to some dates on the time line. “They don’t
happen very often. Usually every two-and-a-half years or even
longer. That’s why there’s the expression ‘once in a blue moon’
because they don’t take place very often. But they
can
be predicted. And
see these dates at the bottom? These are the dates the last fifty
blue moons happened. I memorized them for extra credit on my
project. Do you want to hear me recite them?”

Jessica rolled her
eyes. “No way. We’ll be here all night. Just tell me how come blue
moons aren’t blue?”

“Well, the moon
actually can look blue if there’s a large volcanic eruption or if
there is a big forest fire or something. The ash or smoke
disrupt--”

”That’s not what I
asked, dummy. I asked why the blue moon isn’t blue.”

“Because it’s just an
expression, stupid.”

“Kids,” Richard’s tone
held reproof.

Jeremy shook his head.
“Okay, now everyone look at the moon. I want you to notice how big
it looks.”

Melissa froze, her gaze
automatically going to the ground.

Jeremy sighed. “Mom,
you’re not looking.”

Again she was gripped
by sudden, inexplicable dread. She knew she was being unreasonable.
She’d made it out here just fine, hadn’t she? She was already
sitting in the moonlight, wasn’t she? Slowly, very slowly, she
forced herself to look up at the moon.

The white orb was
bright, very clear, the craters visible. She gazed at it, and
slowly relaxed. Why, it was beautiful; and everything was fine.
There was nothing here to fear and to prove it to herself, she
tried to close her eyes, to look away. She couldn’t.

Fear exploded, harsher
than before; dizziness gripped her hard, and her stomach started to
heave as her heart pounded violently in her chest. Still she
couldn’t look away.

Making an inarticulate
noise, she grabbed for Richard, but he fell to his knees and out of
her reach and she missed him. She tried to speak, but her throat
was tight and no sound escaped. In her peripheral vision, she saw
Jessica and Jeremy fall to their knees.

The moon. All she could
see was the moon. It pulsated, called to her, pulled at her, at her
stomach, at her very soul.

She
pushed past the tightness in her throat and screamed, could hear
her children screaming.
Her
children
. Anguish ripped through her. She
should have warned them; why hadn’t she warned them?

Richard yelled her name
and she fought as hard as she could, fought to look away as the
moon increased in size then hurtled toward her.

Everything went white,
and she plummeted.

* * *

Melissa woke slowly,
head pounding, mouth dry as sawdust, bright sunlight stinging her
eyes, and every muscle in her body throbbing. She must have stayed
up all night again and fallen asleep at her desk.

She groaned. She needed
to get up and get going; get to work. She had a lot to do today.
Had she accomplished any work last night? Or did she need to play
catch up today? She couldn’t remember; couldn’t seem to
concentrate.

Something wasn’t right.
She was cold, and something was poking her cheek. Some kind of
material? Carpet? Oh baby, she was in worse shape than she’d
thought if she’d fallen asleep on the floor.

Turning to her other
side, away from the bright light, she tried to force her eyes open,
but they felt glued shut. And what was that earthy smell?
Apparently she needed to have Claudia call the carpet cleaners
in.

Slowly she focused on
what looked like long, wheat-colored...grass? She blinked several
times, then rolled onto her back. More grass rustled beneath her,
tangled in her short hair and stuck up a foot or more out of the
ground in all directions. She turned her head, still unable to
comprehend what she was seeing, and the sun hit her full in the
face.

Wincing, she lifted an
arm to block the rays. What was going on? Why was she lying on the
ground? She hurriedly brushed at what felt like a bug crawling on
her face and, grimacing, quickly sat up, speared her fingers into
her hair and felt for more bugs.

She glanced around, her
eyes widened and her mouth fell open. Richard, Jessica and Jeremy
lay sprawled on the ground nearby. She shook her head to try and
clear it. Why was her entire family lying in a field?
“Richard?”

Richard groaned, turned
over, then lay still.

Panic built inside her,
but she pushed it down. It wouldn’t do any good to panic. She
needed to stay in control and figure out what was going on.

She glanced around but
didn’t recognize the place. They seemed to be lying in a huge field
out in the middle of nowhere, not a building in sight.

Again, she fought the
panic pushing at her. How had they arrived there? The last thing
she remembered was listening to Jeremy’s presentation in the back
yard and the moon...the moon had...done something.

Fear
tightened her chest. Melissa lifted her gaze, squinted against the
harsh glare of the sun and searched the heavens. No moon in sight.
She rubbed her eyes, glad to block out her surroundings, and took a
deep breath. She could control the fear. She wouldn’t give in to
panic. Richard would have a logical explanation for everything. She
dropped her hands onto her lap. “
Richard
.” She hissed his
name.

He moaned, but didn’t
wake.

Breathe. She needed to
breathe.

Melissa crawled across the grass and shook him. She would not
panic. There was a reason they were in this field. Richard knew
what it was and would tell her. She shook him again, harder. He
still didn’t wake. Her eyes widened and she sucked in a huge breath
of air. Perhaps panic had its place after all. “
Richard
!”

* * *

Richard jackknifed into
a sitting position. “What? What’s wrong?” Wild-eyed, he glanced
around, unable to comprehend where he was. He seemed to be in a
field.

Confused, he focused on
Melissa, who looked crazed, her makeup smeared, hair and grass
sticking out in all directions around her head. He could see the
kids on the ground not far behind her.

He blinked, then rubbed
both hands over his face. Was he dreaming? “What’s going on? Where
are we?”

At his questions,
Melissa looked like she might cry. She shook her head.

Richard looked at the
kids again, lying lifeless. Adrenaline kicked him hard in the gut
and he scrambled across the grass and shook them.

Jeremy mumbled, and
Jessica stretched and yawned. Relief rushed through him, leaving
him shaky. For a moment he’d thought they were dead. That Melissa
was upset because they were dead. He blew out a breath and willed
his heart to decelerate. What a way to wake up in the morning.

The kids sat up,
looking startled as they took in their surroundings.

Jeremy glanced up.
“What’s going on?”

“I
don’t know yet.” Richard stood, surveyed the area and his fingers
clenched. What
was
going on?

Jessica whimpered.
“Dad?”

“It’s okay, pumpkin.
Just sit there for a minute while I figure this out.”

Melissa gazed up at
him. “Richard. How did we get here?” She sounded calm, but like she
was barely holding onto her sanity.

Richard gritted his
teeth and forced his breathing to slow, forced himself to study his
surroundings; to think. How had they gotten here? They’d been
outside watching Jeremy’s science presentation. He’d gotten sick.
His family had screamed.

He closed his eyes for
a moment, took a deep breath, then opened them to study the land
again, this time more slowly as he tried to process what he was
seeing.

It looked familiar.
He’d been here before. His brow furrowed. In fact, it kind of
looked like their property. But that was impossible since there was
no house. He searched the area again, once more recognizing
familiar landmarks.

A
chill ran up his spine. It
was
their property. He’d know it anywhere. His family
had owned this piece of land forever. They’d had picnics here when
he was a kid, long before he’d married and built the
house.

But there were subtle
differences. The scrub brush to the south and the grove of trees to
the north were missing. What was going on?

His gaze settled on
Melissa. She looked haggard. Melissa had never looked haggard in
her life and relief rushed though him. He must be having a
realistic dream. He pinched the tender skin under his arm hard
enough to leave a bruise. It hurt.

Fear slammed into him
and his jaw tensed. No, he wasn’t dreaming. “We’re on our
property.” He made the statement, needing to hear it out loud.

Melissa looked at him
blankly. “You bought more property?”

“No. This is the
property we built our house on.”

Melissa glanced around before laughing a touch hysterically.
“What is
that
supposed to mean?”

“Take a look around.”
He pointed. “There’s the hill in the back yard. And there’s the oak
tree.”

Everyone studied the
tree. It was a relatively small tree, barely big enough to support
a climber. It was certainly not the huge, old tree in their back
yard.

Melissa laughed shrilly. “Are you
insane
? That’s not our tree! I’m
dreaming, right?”

He didn’t blame her for
the disbelief, or the edge of hysteria, but he needed to take
charge before things got too out of control. He needed to figure
this out before she went over the edge and took them all with
her.

Richard shook his head,
trying to rid himself of the buzz in his ears, and said the only
thing he knew to be true. “We’re not dreaming. This is our
property.”