LITTLE MAN FROM THE MOON

It was that moment coming, just like always

Like every hour, every single day

The hour to play the great game of the Fournaise family again

He had come from far away, a long journey from the Moon down to Earth and landed right in the middle of this family, between the fields and empty streets.

Despite hope, the Little Man on the Moon had always felt… apart

Why had he chosen to live among these people called family?

Had he even really chosen at all?

He no longer remembered. Maybe he had forgotten everything along the way, somewhere during his travel through the stars and the Milky Ways amid the stardust of his fall.

Deep down, he knew. One day, he would leave

He would walk away from the enormous tidy house, from the weekend parties in the round, echoing hall, from mountains of french fries and all-you-can-eat chocolate cakes...

That he would venture beyond the green field and the magic tree behind the house, beyond even the Great Black Lion who stood at the edge of the horizon

Very far from the feeling of being different from them.

Every day, the Little Man on the Moon wondered softly: When will it be time to go?Are there other ways to live here on Earth? To be loved? To learn?

He had found warmth there, too. He adored spending time with the smallest little girl from this earth, a girl neighbor next door, the first childhood love, the little one who came to watch him draw with wide, amazed eyes, as if she knew his origins were elsewhere, as if he were a magic little man.

And he loved drawing, endlessly, magical things he could still remember from his little life up there on the Moon.

But then came the part he hated: When the big ones from the Fournaise family towered over him, not with fists, but with rules, unattention, rudeness and silence, and those heavy, very human words:

“That’s just how things work down here.”

The Bearded Father,first in the row, commander-in-chief, patriarch of the family

wanted to keep control. He ran the rhythm, he made others fall, not with his hands, but with his expectations.

The older brother, who came just before the little Moon Man,

tried to resist sometimes…

but still ended up passing down the same pain onto whoever came next.

But one day The Little Man stood up. Wobbled a bit but he knew

The day had come.The day of the great departure.

He wasn’t ready. Not really. But if he didn’t leave now, he would become used to being that strange, silent creature, squashed in the middle of a world that didn’t even see him fall anymore.

So he packed his bag: His favorite drawings, a spark of joy for the unknown,a little amount of fear, a lot of dreams and wild appetite for adventure

He didn’t know where he was going. He just knew it wasn’t there

Maybe he’d find others like him, visitors who had come to Earth out of curiosity, only to slowly forget where they came from…

Or maybe, just maybe, he would build his own dream-world right here,on this spinning, strange, imperfect planet.

But just before he reached the door

The parents were waiting

Those who ran the clocks, the rules, the dinners, and the picture frames on the wall

We are seven!, said the bearded father proudly : and I need all my five children near by to keep the image of our bercail.

You may peek outside for a moment but then you must come back

We need to preserve our family portrait and let's be honest :

"You are not clever enough, you will never figure out how to live differently".

Your place is here!, whispered the sun-haired mother, her voice soft like a lullaby you couldn't help but listen to.

"You will never get far, You've always belonged in the middle of us".

But the Little Man on the Moon said nothing

He simply smiled and his silence, in that moment, was the most powerful thing he had

Because maybe…he hadn’t come to Earth to stay inside the bercail

Very soon, he would be ready to float afar

To follow his own rhythm

To glow in his own rules and light

To invent a new way of being

And most of all, to never again have to fall into the line.