Here's a story I unearthed that I wrote in high school. Have done a pretty good edit I think so that it's now readable. Happy New Year!
The moon was low over the fields as she sat at the open window. Why had she volunteered for this mission? She contemplated that mass of desolate rock, with dry gullies where rivers should be, huge broad plains where grasses should be growing. How often had she sat here like this in the still, black night staring at the heavens? Right then she wished she hadn't lent her telescope to the neighbor boy so soon before she left. She would like to take one last look from below.
She glanced over at the luminous dial of her clock. In less than 48 hours she would be boarding the Lunar Home 1 as the only woman of a crew of scientist to start a base on the moon. She would never see the earth again unless something failed in the mission, and then they would all come home. Hopefully everything would go smoothly and in a year the seventeen other women who were in training now would be sent up and they could really get the colony started.
Sitting in her favorite chaise lounge on the patio she laid her head back to rest and closed her eyes. She was praying in her own way, actually talking to her inner self as she called it. Mulling over the last year of training and preparation for her upcoming journey she could feel warmth on her face as the sun started up over the hills brightening the sky to a light blue. The moon vanished as she opened her eyes.
She wandered around the house gathering the things she needed. She took a shower and changed her clothes. She still had an hour before she checked into the base for last minute instructions and to take care of details done right before takeoff.
She went to the car stopping to smell her last summer rose. She walked away but then changed her mind, turned back and picked the rose shaking off its last drops of dew. She looked at the sky, took a deep breath and drove toward the base.
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