saw this in LA at an iHOP when I was shooting the music video

I LOVE YOU TO THE MOON AND BACK

“Do you love me?” she asked quietly
“Gloves, please.”  he said, also quietly as he climbed into his rocket.
She turned and retrieved his gloves from the instrument panel.
“Thank you.” He slipped them on and stretched his fingers inside, the worn leather crackling with age and use. 
“Do you love me?” she asked again, this time searching his face intently.
“Goggles, please.”  his face betrayed no emotion.
She turned again and grabbed his faded aviator glasses, brown with gold trim.  He reached for it, but instead she leaned over him and carefully put the goggles over his face for him.  He waited patiently and when she was done he gave it a little tug and smiled with content.

“Do you love me?” She asked a final time.  This time she could not look at him.

He was quiet for a while.

“My dear… you know where I’m going right?  Well you know I’ll be gone a very long time… and it is said that on the dark side of the moon, where a single second can stretch out to infinite in a man’s mind… well people lose themselves.  What may be just a day for you will be many many thousands of years for me.  There is no telling how my mind will take that… what I’ll know after, what I’ll believe or even remember.  There is a possibility I may come back a feeble old man.  This time my trip is not a light one.”

she could not look at him.

He stared at her for a moment, and then pulled off his right glove and touched her face, quietly rubbing his thumb over her eyebrows, down her nose, and across her lips. 

He wanted her to feel the pulse under his finger tips as he touched her… he hoped the warmth in his hand relayed the warmth in his heart for her.

She loved it when he touched her… it was always so slow, and tender.  As if he really did want to memorize every single inch of her.

Still, she would not look at him.

He brushed a few loose strands from her eyes and laid his hand on the side of her until the top of her cheek rested perfectly into the curve in the palm of his hand.

She looked up at him, still wanting his answer, but refusing to ask one more time… for each time a person asks “do you love me” without a reply is like adding another weight to the bows of a sapling tree.  Not knowing if a love is requited can cause the soul to bend and threatens to snap it if it is without release.

She was afraid her soul would break if she asked one more time and he did not answer… or worse said “no.”

At least if she did not ask again before he took off, she could pretend perhaps he was holding back his answer until he came back from his trip to the moon.  That after all these years of silence, his love was actually deeper than she could imagine, and that he had been quiet out of a sense of desperation to prove his love before stating it. 

Yes she thought, maybe he was waiting to tell her until he got back, because it was a dangerous trip and if he died upon arrival, he did not want her to hold back herself from any future love because she knew he did in fact, love her the way she loved him.

Then again, I may just be a damned fool, she thought to herself.  Sometimes women have a way of convincing themselves of what they want to believe, when proof is of the contrary.  How else could you explain why so many women stay with so many men that are not the best for them?

She had seen it in so many of her friends, who were unhappy and yet unwilling to break free.  She refused to be one of those women. 

Inside of herself, she promised if he didn’t answer somehow, she wouldn’t be there when he got back.  But she said nothing.

He gently lifted her chin up so she could look at him.

She saw the softness in his eyes, but still that was not an answer enough.
Fondess is no adequate substitute for true love. 

She almost asked again.  The words were just escaping her lips and he saw this, and leaned back into his seat.  

He buckled himself in.  After a long moment of silence, he unbuckled himself and unzipped his jacket.  He reached into his breast pocket, and pulled out a little white ring.  He stretched his hand out the cockpit, and it hung on a chain of fine gold.

He looked at her. 

“Go on.”  he said. 

“Take it.”  

She hesitated, studying his face.  He was so good at hiding himself, his face was always straight and without emotion.  But his eyes never lied.  And this time they were begging her to take the ring.

She reached out her hand, and he dropped the ring and the golden rope into her palm.

“My dear… I’m not giving it to you… yet.  I’m just asking you to hold it for me.  I’ll be back for it.  But all the answers you seek are with this ring. Please take care of it.”

With that, he zipped his jacket back up, leaned backwards fully into his seat, strapped in, and pressed the little red button that closed the window of his cockpit. 

A countdown began.

Ten… nine… eight…

She climbed down the ladder, moved it away from the rocket.

seven… six… five…

She walked over to the bay doors and stared up at the silent behemoth. She pulled the grey lever on the wall, and the ceiling opened up, revealing the stars swimming in an infinite black.

four… three… two…

There was a roar, and the sounds of sizzling and pure matter crackling in the air.

She examined the ring. 

It was a pale, almost bone colored white.  But it was not bone, nor was it was not pearl.  It seemed to be made of a rock.  It was cool in her palm.  She felt calm just holding it.

On the inside was an inscription.  She read it. 

One… 

It said: “I love you to the moon and back”

…and then the rocket took off -taking with it, the love of her life, on a journey to the dark side of the moon.

they say elephants don’t forget.
but who knows what it is that they’re remembering. 

we’re just a whisper in a dream.

Open your eyes, and poof we’re just in your head
except we’re not really, we are real people.
sitting somewhere on this planet
but we can make each other imaginary,
all day.  all it takes is a wink and a nudge.

a wave goodbye

and voila!

elephant vanishes

but am I the elephant
or just the dream

we all live like this in a way