McDonald's in the Sky

I woke up clutching my seat with the seat belt tight across my chest.  For a minute I blanked out... where was I again?

Oh right.  My name is Evie and I'm a mission specialist aboard the Amphitrite, a space ship going to Neptune.  So far we just passed Ganymede, Jupiter's largest moon.

I willed my muscles to relax.  What had me tensed so?  I unbuckled my seat belt and approached the window.  The stars and dark space have always soothed me.

And then I saw it... a McDonald's cup floating near the window.

What?  How did a McDonald's cup got its way near Jupiter?

I craned my neck and saw dozens of other McDonald's junk-- cups, french fries holders, napkins.  It looked as if a McDonald's trash compactor exploded in space!

"Are you seeing what I'm seeing?" Nicky, another mission specialist, asked, running to me.  "How did McDonald's products wound up here?"

"Let's follow the trail," Gina, our commander, said decisively, appearing behind us.  "There's got to be a reason for this."

---

After 30 minutes of traversing through the sporadic garbage trail, we couldn't believe when we saw the culprit: a moon with a humongous McDonald's sign on it like a beacon.

"This is impossible," Gina said.  "I'll tell Rocco to land."  Rocco is our pilot.

"If there's truly a McDonald's here, I'm going down," Nicky said, going for his space suit.  "After a long time of eating space ship food, I need some real food."

"Nicky," I frowned.  "McDonald's in outer space?  It screams aliens all over it.  You don't want to eat alien food, do you?"

"Everything is odd today Evie," Nicky said, his face scrunched up as if he was working out a puzzle in his mind.  "One other odd occurrence wouldn't make much difference."

---

Before we knew it, our ship came near the moon's surface.  What we saw was staggering -- levitating car-like figures on the moon's crater-y surface.  And in the middle of these was what looked like a normal McDonald's building, just like how it looked like in earth.

Nicky, Gina and I prepared our descent, well aware of the dangers of being outside but prepared to face whatever will happen.  As we walked on the moon's surface, we passed other creatures who don similar-looking suits just like ours.

"Look," Nicky poked me, pointing at a creature who waved at us.  It looked just like a little girl holding her mommy's hand.  Amazing!

We entered the so-far-normal-looking McDonald's and went to the counter.  A perky girl greeted us, "Hello.  Welcome to McDonald's!  You've entered the safe zone and could take off your suits.  How may I help you?"

"How may I help you...?" Gina sputtered.  "You may help us by telling us why there's a McDonald's in this moon and why you could speak English."

The cashier looked at us stupefied.  "Huh?"

"I asked what is a McDonald's restaurant doing here near Jupiter?"

"We aren't anywhere near Jupiter," the cashier explained.  "We're indeed in the moon but it's the Earth's moon."  She looked at us as if we were crazy.  "And I speak English because I grew up in an English-speaking country."

Gina, Nicky and I made a three-way look.  My stomach fluttered... something's definitely wrong.  There's a memory... a flashback... something I have to remember...

'You guys look pale," the cashier said.

"My name is Gina dela Rosa, commander of The Amphitrite," Gina said, her voice shaking.  "Does that mean anything to you?" 

Good question.  If this woman is from Earth, she will know The Amphitrite and, possibly, its commander.  Our voyage to Saturn was well-known worldwide.

"The Amphitrite?" the cashier said.  "Isn't that the spaceship that went missing a couple of hundred years ago?"

Huh?

"It's like the Titanic of spaceships, right?  The hypothesis is it got sucked in a black hole or a wormhole or something like that.  It just went missing near Jupiter, never to be heard from again.  That's what the history books say anyway.  Were you referring to that Amphitrite?"

I could feel blood rushing from my face and I remember how I sat on my seat earlier with my heart racing and my hand clutching the seat tightly.  Memories came rushing through my brain, unwelcome.  I remember seeing the blackhole so near The Amphitrite, running to the nearest seat and holding on for dear life...

NOOOOOOOO!!!

I walked with shaking legs to a window and gazed out at a world I do not recognize.  Is this really happening?

"Times has changed, hasn't it?"  Nicky said softly as he moved beside me.  "I'm just remembering bits and pieces of what happened.  Our minds must have forced out the trauma and the memories.  And who would have thought we'll be alive to see a time so much into the future that there's even a McDonald's franchise in the moon?"

I heard Gina moving beside us.  "We traveled too near a blackhole for a long time.  Or at least a long time in Earth hours" she said.  "And somehow, we got out of it.  Maybe we encountered a wormhole along the way which deposited us near earth.  Or something.  The universe is a strange place and we're just beginning to crack it."

We just stared in awe at the wonder of it all.  And we held hands as we gazed at the bluish-white orb 238,000 miles away from us... the orb we used to call home.

-The End-

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Disclaimer:  I am not a science expert so I know nothing much about space stuff.  I just watched too many scifi movies, most recently Interstellar which was the main inspiration of this story.  And yes, McDonald's is everywhere!