Outside the hall, Felix was greeted by a sight that took his breath away. For a moment he forgot that he was on the run. As he looked down, the most dazzling moon stones lay at his feet, and in the distant darkness, the recently built skyscraper-high observation tower, which was even reported on the Earth news, flashed like a stretched bow.
“Why did you run away?” Nelly, who had caught up with him, tugged at the sleeve of his sweater.
“No reason” said the boy, and with determined steps he started towards the lookout.
He thought he’d get away from the hall for a bit, see which Moon shuttle bus Professor Matusek was getting on, then return to his parents, and try to avoid any awkward encounters for the next two days.
“What kind of stone is this? Will you add it to your collection? You know, the one that will be mine on Monday! Why are craters here? How far is the Moon from Earth? What’s that over there? A lighthouse?” Nelly couldn’t stop talking, questions addressed to Felix flooding from her mouth. If only there was a strawberry lollipop here to stuff his sister’s mouth with! ” “But Felix was so enchanted by the sight that he forgot everything. He looked at every tiny stone, peeked into every hole, touched every rough bump on the ground. Suddenly he found himself unable to hear Nelly anymore. He looked to the side: his sister was walking beside him, startled into a grave silence.
“Listen, Felix… We’re so far away now.”
Felix looked around, and was shocked to see that there was no one around: the hall was no longer visible either.
“Not a single person around” said Nelly. Only the observation tower came a little closer. Who knows how long they had been walking. They could only imagine how worried Mum and Dad must be, and where they might be looking for them now.
“Felix… I won’t take your rock collection… I’ll keep quiet about the F… just take me back to Mum and Dad! Please!” Nelly burst into tears, and wept bitterly.
They couldn’t find an orientation point: Felix remembered from his readings that in such a large area, people are unable to keep their bearings, and tend to walk in huge circles; which is why even the most experienced explorers would get lost in the desert or at the North Pole without a compass. He looked around, but all he saw apart from the observation deck was barren wasteland. ” ““We need to get to that observation tower. There must be people there we can ask for help,” Felix tried to reassure his sister, who was now sobbing loudly. “Don’t be afraid, Nelly! We’ll be fine.”
“But that tower is very far away!” whined Nelly. “And I am cooold too!”
Felix took off his coat and laid it on his sister. It was indeed really cold. He started walking faster, but the tower just didn’t come any closer. It could easily be five kilometres away, or twenty. Nelly would definitely not be able to keep up this pace.
“It’s all because of you! Why did you have to run away? They’ll never find us,” sniffed the little girl angrily. “What good are your excellent report cards to you now, pocket Einstein? They’re not getting us back home! I hate you! And if, Mum and Dad find us, I will tell them everything, absolutely everything! About the test, and how you got me out here, and then how we got lost and had to wander around in the cold, hungry and thirsty, all because of you!”” ““Do shut up!” Felix shouted. He stopped, grabbed his sister’s shoulders and wanted to scream in her face and tell her how unfair and mean she was, but then he changed his mind.
“I’ve never been so scared in my life,” sniffled Nelly, startled. She looked quite small and desperate.
“Soon we will arrive at the observation tower, we can call the arrivals hall, and they will send a moon shuttle to pick us up. Just please, please don’t cry! Look at the scenery, or I don’t know… I’ll play Twenty Questions with you on the way if you want, just stop whining! We will be fine!” He said confidently, but inside he was shaking too. “I’m a little scared as well. But we will manage, don’t worry.” he added.
The two children marched steadily towards the tower, but it was getting darker and colder. Nelly sniffed quietly, not daring to say how cold she was. After all, his brother gave her his own coat…
“He must be even colder,” She thought, and she was right. They seemed to have been walking for hours, but the tower came just a little closer.” ““You know, Felix. I’m not really angry with you.” Nelly suddenly said.
“Then why do you keep picking on me?”
“I don’t know… you’re so good at everything. You keep getting A-s. You know all about minerals, but you never tell me about them. I was so happy about that F, you can’t imagine!”
“Of course, I don’t tell you, you never ask questions, you just call me names and double-cross me. I didn’t think you were interested in minerals.”
“Believe me though, I love looking at them when you’re not home… I especially like the purple one, which is so pretty and transparent.”
“That’s the amethyst.” Felix remarked.
Suddenly, the sound of a siren cut through the artificial atmosphere of the Moon. The kids’ heads snapped up: a moon shuttle braked, beating up the dust behind them. They were saved.
Mum and Dad ran towards them, and Mum of course started up immediately:
“What in the heck were you thinking? We almost died of worry! Everyone in the entire hall has been looking for you for hours! If a tall, paunchy physics teacher hadn’t calculated roughly where you could have got to, we would never have found you!”