---
title: 'The moon is gone and in its place a mirror'
project: 'Elegies for Alternate Selves'
project-order: 28
genre: 'prose'
...

The moon is gone and in its place a mirror.  Looking at the night sky now
yields nothing but the viewer's own face as viewed from a million miles,
surrounded by the landscape he is only vaguely aware of being surrounded
by.  He believes that he is [alone][], surrounded by desert and mountain, but
behind him---he now sees it---someone is sneaking up on him.  He spins around
fast, but no one is there on [Earth][].  He looks back up and they are yet
closer in the night sky.  Again he looks over his shoulder but there is
nothing, not even a desert mouse.  As he looks up again he realizes it's
a cloud above him, which due to optics has looked like someone else.  The
cloud blocks out the moon which is now a mirror, and the viewer is
completely alone.

[alone]: apollo11.html
[Earth]: serengeti.html