When There’s a Big Moon

The two stood solemnly at the bus station. It was two o’clock in the morning. They were drunk. The tall one wore a white polo with red and black stripes. The short and dumpy one wore a pea green T-shirt. Both sported khaki pants. They each faced the ground. They each had weathered expressions. They each seemed sad. The two stood as strangers in the darkness. An awkward gap sat between them. They had created a make shift wall out of the silence. “The bus should be here any minute, that’s when the bus should come.” The short one spoke quickly. “This is where the bus stops, any minute, the bus will stop.” The sentences shot out fluidly, but they were as meaningless as the evening itself. How awkward it all was.

“CJ!” He ran up to his friend with the utmost delight. “Jake!” The two went in to shake hands, but then pulled back and embraced. “Jeez, man, it’s been forever!” And it had. Or, it may as well have been. The two had not come into contact with one another for over three months. To the two college students, it was an eternity. They had shared a room the previous year and had bonded quickly. Jake had decided to transfer schools, which was the only reason the two did not room together then. They could not wait to relive their fun. CJ cracked open a beer and handed it to Jake. “To the times man!” Jake looked right back at him smiling, “The times.”

The bus had still not arrived. The night was quickly moving from cool to chilly, and from late to early. The silence was still in control, refusing to back down. Finally, the tall one looked up. He did not look at his companion or the road ahead, but to the sky. “Is it funny that I came on Mom’s weekend?” The short one looked up hopefully at the sound of his voice, but then changed his mind as he heard the question. “Is it funny? I don’t know.” The short one frowned at his statement. “Why would it be…” But the tall one cut him off. “Two hundred and eighty dollars for one beer. Kind of extreme, don’t you think?” Again the short one was at a loss for words. “Yeah, just a bit.” The tall one maintained his gaze. He was staring at the overbearing image of the full moon. “Look at that damn thing. It’s so big.” The short one looked at the moon. “Yeah,” he said looking back down, “Pretty big.”

“Go, Go, Go… Yeah!” CJ chanted as Jake bonged a few more beers. The two had just hit their second Frat party and were going strong. That’s what Jake and CJ did. They partied. The year before, the whole dorm had known about them. They were infamous. They once held a keggar in their room. They once evaded the RA, each carrying a full 24 case of Old Milwaukee. They once took a final exam drunk. They once did it all, and no one ever forgot the stories.

He still looked to the moon. He still held a sallow expression. Then he looked down. “Ok.” The short one looked up in amazement. “Ok?” The tall one turned in his direction. “Yes, ok.” The short one sighed and looked at his friend. “It’s simply a turn of chance. That’s all it is.” And then the short one looked down again, because he knew how sad his friend was. “Well, it may be a little more complex than that. Don’t you think?” The tall one looked back toward the moon. “It’s so big, isn’t it? How do you think it got that big?” The short one looked at the moon. “I don’t know.” The tall one didn’t seem to hear him. “It’s so big and it’s all alone. It just sits there. It just sits there in the dark. All alone.” The short one grew confused; he seemed to have lost track of the conversation. “What are you…” But, again, the tall one cut him off. “I’m sad for the moon.” The tall one looked back towards the earth and finally directly into his friend’s eyes. “I’m sad for myself, CJ.” A tear trickled down the tall one’s marooned cheek.

They walked away from the fourth Frat of the night and started singing some old drinking song they had heard from their fathers. They laughed about the hefty tickets they had each received. They sang louder. They were truly and genuinely happy.

They came upon a fifth Frat party and decided to go in. Once inside they began to drink, as they always did. But, this time it was not as fun, this time seemed hollow. There was no real reason why. “Is this all we do CJ?” CJ turned to Jake in amazement. “No way man, we do lots of stuff.” They each turned back to what they were doing. They each turned back to their beers. A girl came stumbling out of the bathroom and in Jake’s direction. She grabbed onto his arm and commented on his white polo that had red and black stripes. He smiled and thanked her for the compliment. She started kissing him. It felt like nothing. And that was what it meant. She was beautiful, and he wanted to kiss her. But this act wasn’t real. And then he realized something about himself, something that no one should ever have to realize. Jake pulled away from the girl and set his beer on the floor. Then he left. And he remembered something then, something he had somehow forgotten. He remembered his mother. And he remembered why it was he forgot about her; and why he partied; and why he was just a story; and why that was really nothing at all.

Two guys waiting for a bus. A big moon. A chilled night. The tall one looked up at the moon. The short one looked down at the ground. The strangers were best friends once. But things change, things always change. The big moon wasn’t always so big. And Jake was happy for that. And if the big moon weren’t always so alone, Jake would be happy for that too.

A guy