A dream of rabbits

Home and school

Tama hopped across the big, empty field in the park. Tama loved nothing more than pretending to be a rabbit.

"Come on Tama, it's time to go home."

"Just a bit longer aunty Jenny."

"No, no. We must go home. We haven't ate dinner."

"Oooh but I want to see the moon"

"Don't worry, you will still be able to see the moon before you sleep. Now hold my hand and let's go home."

Tama nodded and ran to aunty Jenny to take hold of her hand. Together they walked to their apartment building in middle of the next street. They got in together with a quick beep beep beep beep beep of the code on the door.

Tama bounded up the stairs. "Wait for me Tama!" Aunty called up. But it was too late. Tama was half up the steps. So she followed up quickly.

They lived in a small apartment on the third floor. Always choosing toy take the stairs instead of the lift to try to keep themselves healthy. Then with a turn of a key in the door. They swung the door open and were home.

Aunty Jenny went to the kitchen to start cooking and Tama asked if the TV could be turned on. Tama watched a little bit of TV while dinner as being cooked, then they ate together and Tama helped to wash the dishes. When then that was done. Aunty Jenny sat on the sofa to read a book and Tama lay on the floor to draw while the news played on the TV.

"Did you hear, did you hear?" Joey shouted to Tama as crowds walked towards the school door. Tama always waited for Joey at the front door of the school. A place of hectic activity but the best place to meet.

"I did, I did. Rockets to the moon. How wonderful!"

Tama expressed as they joined back into the slowly moving crowd. "I watched a documentary on ETV, they are going to build a base on the moon" Joey said. 'Gosh I hope they don't hurt the rabbits' Tama thought to herself.

But Tama didn't say that for reasons of worry that Joey or others near her would laugh at the idea. Instead Tama replied "wouldn't it be amazing to live on the moon. You would never need to walk up stairs again! You could just jump up them in one leap"

Joey gasped. "What if you fell asleep in your bed and woke up in your bathroom?" Which made Tama laugh. "That would never happen. Astronauts strap themselves into the bed to sleep." Tama giggled.

"I know that. But I'd probably forget" Joey said as the approached their class room and joined the lane to wait for their teacher to open the door and go in.

Dinner and a documentary

Tama got home to the smell of frying fish in a cream sauce and cooking vegetables and rice. "Auntie Jenny I'm home she called out.

"Hiya Tama. start your homework and I shall call you when dinners ready" she called from the kitchen. "Okaaaay I'll be in my room. Tama called back.

Tama was half way through the math homework when the call for dinner came. Opening the door to the living room. The smell filled the whole house. Delicious salty, fish and vegetables.

"How was your day Tama?" Aunty Jenny asked. Tama answered "Joey told me about the moon base, I wanted to say something about the … but I didn't" as they started to eat.

"Joey told me about a documentary they watched on the TV. About the moon base."

"Then we can look for it and watch it together after we eat. Would you like that Tama?" She asked as they ate.

Tama nodded eagerly "I would, I would" with a mouthful. Aunty Jenny agreed. "okay Tama but remember not to talk with your mouth full." Tama apologized. So they ate and talked and when they were finished. Tama went back to finish the homework.

Then when that was done and aunty Jenny has washed the dishes and cleaned the kitchen. They sat on the sofa together and turned on the TV.

"Joey said it was on ETV" Tama told her. "Then let's have a look." She replied as Tama slid off the sofa to sit on the floor closer to the TV. "Not too close Tama, it's not good for your eyes" she told Tama.

"I know Auntie, I just want to sit a little closer, if my eyes start to hurt I shall come sit next to you again." Tama told her. "Very good Tama. Here it is." She clicked it and the TV went black and started to load.

Humans on the moon

A simple tubular rocket blasts off with a flaming trailing could of thick steam. The camera follows it up as it goes up into the sky.

Narrator: for decades the human race has sent rockets, just like this one into space. To carry satellites or equipment for the space station.

Then it switched to another rocket ready to blast off. But this one was not just a rocket but a bigger spaceship with three huge tanks that gave it extra lifting power.

A count down from ten started on the TV and fire blasted out of the rockets as the started to lift into the air. They watched it zoom up into the sky just like the one before. Bigger but a little slower.

Narrator: this spaceship, as you can see is much bigger. That's because it's not just going to spaceship to orbit the planet but is going to land on the moon to build a base so that people may move there to live in the coming months.

The scene turns to a wide spread view of the moon. Gray, still lands in a low light. Dozens of small domes dotted around. Then one huge glass dome that had two or three floors. Tama wasn't paying attention to that. Tama's eyes scanned the floor. Looking for small prints of a small animal.

Narrator: now you may be thinking. People can't live on the moon. There's no oxygen. Well you would be right. But scientists have found that oxygen lies deep underground and in the soil itself. Now we may not be able to get to the oxygen underground but we can extract the oxygen out of the soil.

The scene moved to a group of people putting on space suits. And gutting canisters with a short hose connected to a sprayer with a handle over their shoulder.

Narrator: to extract the oxygen out of the soil we need two teams. The first team will walk out of the base when they are read and spray as much of the area as they can with their canisters. Then, because the oxygen doesn't last long on its own. A second team will come out and lay down long strips of grass.

It's the moon for me

The last day of school came and Tama said goodbye to all Tama's friends, with see them a great summer holiday and walked home. "Tama is that you?" Aunty Jenny skidded into the room as the front door closed.

"Yes it's me aunty Jenny, What's going on?" The room was filled with their clothes and daily household things. Two big suitcases lay open on the floor and smaller carry-on bags sat on the chairs.

"We're going to the moon!" Aunty Jenny told her, unable to hold down her excitement. "Really? We're going to the moon?" Tama asked shocked. They hugged and jumped up in excitement.

Then they packed their bags and went to sleep. Tama was nervous but excited as their space training started. But by the time it was a month to the new term of the new year of school. They were both ready to go to space.

"Don't worry everyone, we shall be on the moon by this time next week. Ready for the new school year." The astronauts told them all. "Soon you will be astronauts too"

Then you day came when Tama and Aunty Jenny were put into a deep sleep in the spaceship. "You will sleep for about three days but don't worry. The ship will provide you with everything you need"

Tama slept and dreamed of the time when mum and dad were still here before Aunty Jenny. How, altogether they went to a trip to the playground. And they let Tama stay late because they were having so much fun.

Then it got dark and together they just lay on the grass. Looking up at all the starts in the clear open night sky. Tama's mum and dad told her many stories of the stars that night. But the one she remembered most, was:

Looking up at the moon as they said,

Mum: rabbits live on the moon.

Dad: yes they do, they wear little vests and thick coats in the night time. And they have little hates with long feathers pointing out of the top.

Mum: they eat moon carrots that are red and sleep holes like they do here.

Tama never forgot that night. Not that story and not about the rabbits on the moon and now was Tama's chance. A chance Tama wouldn't take on lightly. No one ever believed her growing up but now they would.

Life on the moon

They nights were quiet, the morning dark and desolate but they days were long and loud. There was lots to do on the moon and more ships came and went weekly.

Tama was at home on the moon like Tama had always lived there. With an oxygen measurement tester on Tamas wrist Tama walked all over. Tama skipped around craeters. Tama jumped high over big stones

In school Tama learned all there was to know about the moon. After school Tama and Aunty Jenny took long walks. Passed domes and creators. Passed the huge new building being constructed.

Sometimes they went to watch the spaceship land or take off. Sometimes they watched the earth from the moon and talked about their old home. "Do you miss it Tama" Aunty Jenny asked one day. "Well yes I do but I still love living on the moon." Tama replied.

"That's okay. You can love your home and still be somewhere else." Aunty Jenny told Tama and they hugged. "What about you Aunty Jenny? Do you miss our old home?" Tama asked. "I feel the same as you Tama. I miss it but as long as I'm with you. I have my home."

In that moment Tama was the happiest she had felt since before Tama's parents passed but as time passed Tama began to give up hope. "Your not still looking for rabbits are you?" Aunty Jenny would ask Tama when she found Tama looking into a deep crater or what looked like a cave opening.

Tama tried to ask people if they had seen rabbits or small paw prints but they only shuck their heads. "They won't be able to sent any pets over any time soon and the first animals they will send are cat and dogs" an older gentleman told Tama. "No you don't need to send for them" Tama replied "rabbits already live here. My mum and dad told me so" Tama told him and he smiled patted her on the head lightly and said "I'm sure they do. Now it will be getting dark soon so you had better get home" and walked away.

'It won't be dark for another four hours' Tama knew. Tama knew a lot about the moon now and about other planets too.but what she was most interested in was the digging underground to extract the the oxygen.

It soon came close to a year for them living on the moon. And Tama was starting to give up on the whole idea. Everyone she told didn't believe her and the digging had been put on hold. She couldn't find any paw prints and there was no evidence at all of rabbits living on the moon.

Tama was coming to terms with the idea that there never was rabbits on the moon and that Tama's parents may have just told Tama that to make Tama happy.

When one way Tama was walking down a new road on a newly built set of domes for new arrivals when Tama noticed a speck of white amongst all the gray in the distance. It was so small but it looked like a corner of a piece of paper.

Tama took a few steps towards it but the oxygen measurement tester started to beep loudly. 'It's out of the zone of oxygen.' She ran the few steps back to the road to stop it beeping.

Tama tried really hard to look and make out what it was but Tama couldn't see it. 'What can I do? I can't take off my OMT or the emergency services will come and I can't go out there or the emergency services will come too.'

After a long thought Tama had an idea. Tama covered the watch with tama's right hand and ran long steps as fast as Tama could. The watch beeped but was muffled by Tama's hand. With Tama's left hand Tama grabbed the white thing and ran back.

The watch stopped beeping and Tama shoved it in Tama's jacket pocket and waited. Emergency services did turn up but Tama told them she saw a naughty boy playing outside the zone and sent him home.

They thanked Tama and left. Tama walked home, ate with Aunty Jenny and went to Tama's room. Tama took the white thing out of the jacket pocket to discover it was a letter. But it wasn't. It was thicker. It was a book. A very old book stamped by something like a paw pad of an small animal, there was some writing in a language Tama could not identify.

She gasped loudly. "Is everything okay?" Aunty Jenny called from the next room. Tama panicked. "Yes it is!" Tama called back and threw the new found book under the the bed as Aunty Jenny opened the door. "What was that?" Asked Aunty Jenny.