Lunar Exposure (Part I)
The twins leapfrogged up the enclosed sidewalk while Cristina— who, having been born on the moon, was not particularly excited by the low gravitational pull— lackadaisically followed behind them. Aubrey purposely placed her hand too low on Durf’s back as she vaulted over him, so that she would be forced to smack him in the back of his head to make her landing. Durf, in turn, landed a jump kick on her ass, gaining enough height from this maneuver to push his other foot off the lower road barrier and make a two-foot landing on Aubrey’s head. She grabbed at his ankles to throw him to the ground, but he jumped and flipped down before she could grip him.
As he touched down, he shouted, “Run!”
Aubrey, assuming he was trying to ditch the girls, bolted, feeling the whoosh of hovercrafts whipping past her as she pressed up against the sidewalk’s barrier to pass a swaying, sweaty man coming down the narrow path in the other direction.
Behind her she heard Cristina and the stranger exchange a few words before Cristina let out a cry. A second later Cristina was pulling herself in front of Aubrey, running on the lower barricade and using the upper barricade to push herself down so that she could push forward off the lower barricade without waiting on gravity for her descent. Aubrey continued running, incorporating Cristina’s method of using the barricade to increase her speed.
The three of them met breathlessly in front of the twins’ house.
“What the fuck?” asked Aubrey.
“He whipped his dick out,” explained Durf.
“Way to protect me and Cristina, dipshit.”
“I dunno, Cristina seemed kinda into it.”
“Durf! That is so rude! I didn’t see he had his, um, penis out. I thought he was asking me for directions.” She said this whispering the word “penis.”
“To your pants?”
“Durf, you hush,” she blushed.
**
The twins and their friend found the twins’ parents in the gravity chamber doing their exercises to prevent muscular degeneration from the lack of gravity. They all stepped in, and Cristina immediately sat down. She may have been more of a natural at navigating moon gravity, but she couldn’t sustain earth gravity for long.
Durf opened the account of the events with a reassurance that everyone was fine, and omitted the part where he ran ahead before checking to make sure the girls were ok. Aubrey immediately rectified this omission. Their dad’s immediate reaction was to ask “Did you tell him that that looks like a penis only smaller? Or that his time on the moon seems to have affected ALL his muscles?”
Their mom insisted that they report the incident to the police. Cristina was dubious about this course of action, partly out of embarrassment and mostly out of a better intuitive understanding of the lunar criminal justice system.
