The Paper Moon

I sat up on the floor made of dense clouds, admiring the midnight sky shining purple and silver. A golden halo before me illuminating the figure of the moon herself. She glowed a slow pale smile which beamed a soft light around me like a comforter made of warmth itself.

She lifted her arm and took a strand of her hair, and ever so gently pulled a slip of paper, pinched between her pale fingertips. Moonlight knotted it and folded it as she spoke, folding the strand of paper over on itself again and again. Her spindle fingers pinching the corners as the paper tripped over itself repeatedly.

What brings you here child? The sun in a deep slumber, as you should be, tucked away under these stars.

And she placed the paper star between the cosmos surrounding her twinkling and fading into the abyss as she began anew folding paper and speaking in a soft echo.

You were never meant to survive this long, but every one of us holds our surprises. I wonder what you'll achieve now, that you have conquered death. What does a mortal do with such power?

I stood there in silence as for much of my existence, I did the same still and silent, lost in my thoughts.

Do you know why the stars shine my child? I shook my head, staring as her hands moved without pause folding and folding and folding.

They shine because I forge the paper like metal. Each fold adding strength to the whole. Each one of us must face the forge, one day or another, and see if we are up to the test. She finally stopped folding and looked at me staring, as still and silent as I was both our hearts beating in anticipation of the next pulse to course through veins of blood and starlight.

You have faced the forge more than once, my child and still, you will face it again. But will you shine, or will you fall?

She paused for a moment, and sat back, placing her paper stars around her atmosphere and plucking another strand of paper hair. I knew the question was rhetorical, but my voice compelled me to speak.

I’ll shine since I’m already here. Not much else to do in the end is there? A slow grin spread across her face and she glowed brighter. Airy laughter spilling out of her like vapor My child, this is not the end.

She chuckled and plucked a golden foil star from around her technicolor halo It unraveled before me both paper and plasma with small styrofoam diorama planets slowly falling into the black hole forming before me. Each swirl around the degrading star brought it closer and closer to the middle. A dark vortex swallowing down the planets and their moons. Rock, plastic, and metaphor all in one, gobbled by the swirling darkness.

This is the future if you do not pull yourself out of this hole. You must conquer yourself lest you succumb to the darkness that surrounds your heart. The darkness is not yours to claim, and neither is the light. Only the self can be claimed. You are the future of yourself, and your own past. What will you choose?

I did not understand the question. If I could not choose dark or light, what was left? What is it that I must do? Was there a correct answer? Was this a test?

Nothing popped into my head as I watched each planet sink deeper and deeper. Moonlight’s eyes were patient, waiting, knowing, asking. The moons were beginning to melt, and the star began to vibrate. A decision must be made. 

The unknown I said. I choose to move forward, regardless. I don’t know what comes next, for I cannot divine as you do. My eyes can only see what is directly before me. I must step forward and make a decisive step or else I’ll fade away. I can no longer sit still waiting for salvation from a stranger.

I choose the unknown.