Before Launch

A Wish Soon Fulfilled

  My feet lifted me upwards the stairs, one by one, up into the old man's room. "Johnny?" I beckoned, "I'm coming in now." I saw him then, hunched over his desk with his old, wrinkled hands holding a pencil above a single piece of paper. I saw the logo on top of the page. The Sigmund Agency of Life Generation. "It's almost that time, huh?" I asked, with a tinge of sadness in my voice, "what's your wish?" He looked up at the moon, the lighthouse in front, absorbing the shine of the celestial object. "To go to the moon?" I inquired. He looked at me and nodded. "Why?" I asked. He shrugged. He didn't talk much. "When?" I asked. He held up his calendar, May 19 was circled. "May? That's... only next month." He just looked in my eyes and smiled. "I'll... go send it for you." He held out the paper to me, I walked up and took it from his frail hands. When I placed my hand on the door knob, he did something he rarely ever does. "Lily... thanks for everything." He said, his voice weak and raspy."... No problem." I replied, without looking back, if I did, he'd see the tears swelling up in my eyes, and I want his last days to be the happiest.