23/02/2014 – tnkerr-Writing Prompts and Practice

Daily Prompt: Walking on the Moon

What giant step did you take where you hoped your leg wouldn’t break? Was it worth it, were you successful in walking on the moon, or did your leg break?

***

Greg picked his left hand off the keys and shoved the carriage return lever all the way to the right. He hit it twice more, moving the paper up three lines total. Lifting the top of the paper he read the lines he had written.

July 23, 1967

 Dear John,

 It’s over John.  I have to walk away.  The competition is fierce at work and if I want to realize my dream I have to end it.  If any word of our relationship were ever to be made public I would be bounced from the program so, I have to go.  I have to try and build what will appear to the world as “a normal life”.

 When Gus and his crew were killed in that fire it narrowed the field down to two possible teams that could be chosen for the landing.  Neil and his crew of Buzz and Mike or me, Chuck, and Smitty.

 You see, I have to choose.  I hope you can forgive and understand why I chose the moon.

 I will never forget you.

Love

Greg

He pulled the paper from the platen and blinking back the tears read the letter again. He crumpled the page and tossed it into the wastebasket next to his desk, rolled a new sheet around the platen. He typed:

 I would like to inform you that, for personal reasons, I am resigning from my position as Command Pilot for the Apollo program, effective immediately.

***