"The Man Who Hated the Moon" by Chris Ankney

He screamed. He fell backwards onto the pavement. The crowd around him scattered. Herman had smoke coming off of him and Penelope screamed at the sight and the smell of his burning skin. Herman was still screaming and his skin was still burning when blackness overcame him.

*****

Herman woke up in a hospital bed. It was three days after the event. For four months he was hospitalized and put through rehab. Every day was worse than the one before. Penelope never came to visit, never called, never wrote; she never even answered the phone when Herman called her. He was angry at her distance, he was angry with the constant attention awarded to him by the hospital staff, he was angry that he couldn’t leave, but most of all he was angry at the moon. It had ruined his date; it had ruined his life! Something had to be done!

After these four months of hell, Herman had recovered perfectly. His life was back to normal. Penelope, however, was still reluctant to recognize Herman’s existence.

Every day in his lab he labored on a way to get back at the moon that had caused him all of this pain. Then, on one cold January day in 2057, it came to him.

It took him six months to complete this project, and he did it all without letting Dr. Wade or anyone else know. Sometimes Herman would work 20 hour days, adding things here, removing stuff there, and shifting dohickies around, anything that would make it operational. Finally, in the middle of July, he had finished it. It was big, it was shiny, it was a laser; it was perfect.

But it wasn’t just any laser. This laser had the power to take away the one thing that wasn’t perfect in Herman’s life. It had the power to destroy the moon.

*****

And on August first, that is just what it did. At one o’clock in the morning, when everyone was gone, Herman, wrapped completely in aluminum foil, wheeled the laser out of his lab and into the parking lot. Through his sunglasses, Herman aimed the laser (which looked very much like a telescope) towards his target. When the tip of the machine was pointing at the center of the silver orb, Herman laughed and clapped his foiled hands together.

Page 5