Then, finally, something came into view.
A giant American flag.
And, on the other side, the NASA logo.
“You’re not actually taking me to the moon, are you?” I said, staring.
“Sadly, that’s not possible yet,” he said. “Not even for me. But I got you the closest thing I could.”
As the car pulled up to a door on the side of the building, I saw a woman walk out. She came towards the car with purpose.
After I climbed out, she offered me her hand.
“Hi,” she said. “You must be Maddy. I’m Sam - I’m an astronaut.”
“That’s…that’s cool,” I said, dumbly.
She grinned. “A few years ago, I was the first woman to walk on the moon,” she said. “I hear you’re something of a moon enthusiast.”
“I wouldn’t say that,” I replied, a little stunned. “But I guess…I guess I always did kind of want to go there. It just looks so cool.”
“It’s pretty cool,” she said, grinning. “If I could really take you there, I would. But since I can’t, I’m going to give you the next best thing. Over the next three days, I’m going to put you two through a simulated astronaut training. Everything you’d do if you really were going to the moon. At the end, we’ll do a simulated landing and moon walk. It’s a new attraction - not open to the public yet, but when Daniel here wrote to us and told us about how he wanted to give you your dream vacation, we couldn’t resist the opportunity. We wanted you to be the first to try it out.”
I didn’t know what to say.
“Are you pumped?” she asked, sounding pretty pumped herself.
“Yeah,” I said. “I just…yeah. This isn’t what I expected at all.” I could feel myself grinning from ear to ear.
“That’s a good thing, right?” said Sam. “The unexpected things are always the most fun.”
“Oh, absolutely.” I glanced at Daniel. He was beaming.
We walked inside then, slowly. I had to drink everything in. This had honestly been the last thing I’d ever expected - that he would remember what I said about wanting to go to the moon, and that he’d make an attempt to fulfill my impossible childhood dream. How much thought had he put into this? How much time had he spent? The money, I knew, was nothing to him. He could have given me any lavish gift in the world, any generic multi-million dollar vacation. But this was something else.
This was the sort of gift you give to someone that you truly care about.
The training, Sam informed me, wasn’t to start until tomorrow. Today, we’d just take a tour of the astronaut hall of fame, taking in all the exhibits - the old space suits, the models, the photographs. Sam told us about her personal experiences as we went.
“When I heard they were doing another manned moon landing, I was one of the first to put my name in,” she said. “A woman had never walked on the moon before. I couldn’t resist the opportunity. Of course, every other female astronaut had the same idea. But of all the names, they picked mine.” She took a deep breath, her eyes distant for a moment. “I’ll never forget, as long as I live, how it felt to put my foot down on that rock. Some people told me I was crazy for even caring about it - just a pebble floating in space, nothing really special about it. I can’t really explain why I wanted to go, but it was the most breathtaking experience. To see the earth like that. The stars. To be in space. It was my dream come true.”
Briefly, I wondered if I was turning green.
“But enough about me!” Sam said, suddenly. “Come on. Let’s show you the rest of the facility. There are some pretty amazing things that don’t get shown on the regular tours, but I’d be happy to take you there.”
With every step, I felt more and more like I must be dreaming. What kind of fake husband would go to this kind of trouble? There was an answer of course, in the back of my mind, quiet but persistent; I had to shut it down. No, no, no. He pushed you away. He doesn’t want you to get attached. He doesn’t have feelings for you; he just wants you to be happy so you don’t try to get out of the deal.
We passed through the touristy areas, and soon Sam was taking us through doors that said “AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY.” I held my breath as we stopped to look at instrument panels and control rooms, while Sam rattled off things that only halfway made sense to me.
When the tour was over, Sam handed us each a schedule for the next few days, detailing what we’d be doing for the next few days for our “astronaut training.” Reading over it in the back of the cab on the way back to the hotel, I felt giddy. So maybe this wasn’t quite what I would have imagined - but it really was the best of all possible honeymoons.