My talented friend, Berit Ellingsen, told me that today was Buzz Aldrin’s 83rd birthday, and that this reminded her of my microfiction, “Space Man” which I’ve posted below.
Happy birthday, Mr. Aldrin!
Space Man
His girlfriend’s probably surfing somewhere in California right now. She is an astrophysicist and a veteran and a triathlete, but she’s never been up in space, like he is now, in a failing spacecraft. He knows it’s failing by the way the engine sounds, like a tennis shoe in a dryer, and also, by the way it’s spiraling out of control. Alone and out loud, Space Man employs the imperative: Eject! Eject! And girding himself for the unknown, he presses the button. Untethered, he waves to his ship as it cartwheels through space. As he, himself, cartwheels through space. He squinches his eyes shut. Jane would tell him not to be afraid, that this is an infinite universe and in an infinite universe all things are mathematically possible, even certain. And so he imagines his pretty girl, walking toward him on a boardwalk or even on Pluto or some star, a surfboard under her arm, saying see Space Man? See?
Thank you so much, Kathy!
Always good to see this story, as we are all Space Men and Women in our own rights.
And many happy b-day wishes to Mr. Aldrin!
I heard him on a talk a few years back and he seemed very much a man humbled by the unusual and prosaic events in his life. He struggled for years with alcoholism and we did get the feeling that returning to Earth and suddenly being a celebrity had changed his life in both good and bad ways.
A certain gleam one can see in his eyes the old official NASA pictures hadn’t quite disappeared though.
What a cool experience, Berit! I hadn’t known that about his life, in his post space program days, but I’m happy for the gleam in his eye. I was enthralled as a kid watching the moon landing on television. Exciting times!