What drives people to excellence? Why do they commit their
entire life to something relentlessly and invest all their
energies to having it done the best possible way? What
quality in the human race gives us the power to go the
distance?
Johnny Dermont was born on a sunny day in 1951. From his
birth, when his little blue eyes looked at the sky for the
very first time, his parents knew he would amount to
something great. From a very early age he was fascinated by
the stars.
'What are those shining dots in the sky, dad?' he would ask
again and again, even after he knew the answer.
'Those are stars, son,' his father would replay, again and
again, 'very far away from here.'
'And what's that big shiny one?'
'That's the moon, son.' His father would smile.
Johnny was in love with the moon, his parents proclaimed. He
would look at it intently for hours at a time, as if it was
speaking to him.
Johnny was a very bright young man, as he was creative and
friendly. In kindergarten he was the center of the group.
All the boys admired him and all the girls loved him. When
he got to first grade he could already read and write and he
understood math perfectly. Studying came easy to him, and he
would often spend a lot of his after school hours helping
his friends who were having trouble understanding the
material. But never changing, in the early hours of the
night, he would stand in the backyard and look at the stars.
He would feel restless and tense if he couldn't find the
moon and he would run around the house until he got a good
angle of it. On a moonless night, his father would have to
explain to him that sometimes we cannot see the moon because
the Earth's shadow covers it. Nevertheless, Johnny would
look to the sky, trying to see through the dark. He simple
had to see the moon every night. His father was bursting
with pride. Such a smart boy, and so fascinated with
knowledge!
It was sad when he was moved up a class and so had to part
with some of his friends who were left in second grade.
Third grade, however, proved to be a cinch for him as well
and he made new friends quickly. Even there he would help
other children. His mother worried that the bigger kids
would hate him, be jealous because he was so much smarter
and younger than they. But Johnny had such a compelling
personality that they all loved him.
Time seemed to fly by and soon he was in high-school and
very eager to hear news of the war. He would watch the TV
for every bit of information he could get, and when he
graduated, top of his class and valedictorian, he
immediately signed up for the army. His mother and father
were scared but so proud of him. He signed up for the
air-force and became the best pilot in his division. He flew
to missions across the world and always came back the
victor. His friends all looked up to him and he was always
expected to lead. He decided to start a career in the
military and became an officer. He was renown throughout the
country for all his actions and was greatly respected by all
his superiors. But even though he was an integral part of
the air-force he always made room for home and mom's
cooking, and even then, he would sit outside at evenings and
look at the moon. He never forgot his dreams. He found time
to settle down, as well. While buying groceries he bumped
into a young woman, Laura Skinner. The two fell in love
almost at once and had a long and trusting relationship
before they finally wed. It was then that Johnny decided he
would fulfill the greatest dream he had and applied for
NASA. He was worried they wouldn't accept him, but everyone
who knew and loved him knew he was worried for nothing.
Shortly he received a reply, happily accepting him to the
agency. The training was hard and long, but Johnny passed it
all with flying colors, like he did everything in his life.
And then the day came. He was picked to fly a mission to the
moon, to gather rocks for research. He was so happy he
cried. The family had a huge party at home, Johnny and Laura
and their two kids, Robby and Denise. Everyone was invited,
and everyone came. They all wanted to congratulate Johnny,
saying no one deserved this more. The night before the
mission, Johnny looked deeply into his wife's eyes, and then
up to the moon.
'I'll see you soon, you son of a bitch.'
Laura laughed. Johnny was always so playful about
everything. She looked at him, staring at the moon, acting
all serious. He then looked back at her, as if he forgot she
was there. He kissed her smoothly and said he wanted to walk
along a bit, to gather his thoughts. They kissed again and
he walked away.
The next day he was all ready, sitting in the commander's
chair of the ship "Arrow". The launch was executed without
flaw, and the crew was under way. The team was astonished by
their captain as he piloted the ship perfectly. They were
inspired by his will to reach the moon, how he wouldn't let
his eyes off it. When their journey was at an end they began
their landing. They touched down smoothly and began
preparations to step out to the surface.
Why was Johnny so relentless? Why did he thrive to be the
best and to get where he got?
Johnny lived in agony.
Since he could remember himself, Johnny would always look at
the moon. He liked the moon at first, he could swear he did,
but the moon, it was always laughing at him. Sometimes it
was laughing so hard that it was shaped like a great, big,
condescending smile. When he was older he'd heard some
scientific reason on why the moon looked like that, but he
knew it was nonsense. The moon was laughing at him. What am
I doing wrong? He would think. Why are you laughing at me!?
But nothing. The moon would only look and sneer. Johnny was
the best at everything, just to show the moon he was, but
the moon never cared. Even when the moon was hidden in the
shadow Johnny could hear the laughter, and it angered him.
He decided to get even with the moon, flying so high up
above, thinking it could mock people without retaliation. If
there's one think he learned at the air-force it's that you
can always retaliate. He became an astronaut, the best one,
and on the night before his launch he got into the ship's
hanger and planted as much C4 on it as he could without
anyone noticing it. He went back home, the moon laughing in
his head.
'Keep laughing you son of a bitch, you just keep on
laughing. In a few days the last laugh will be mine.'
As the astronauts were walking on the surface, Johnny
suddenly ran to the back of the ship. He pulled out a
harpoon. He shot the engineer first, harpooned him through
the gut. He screamed for a second and then floated silently
to the ground. Johnny yanked the hook out of the engineer's
body and reloaded the harpoon. He aimed it at the other
astronaut.
'Johnny! What are you doing?!' He was holding a camera that
was broadcasting right to Houston. Johnny fired at him and
the hook hit his helmet, breaking it. He suffocated and
collapsed, the camera still clutched in his hand. Johnny
tossed the harpoon away and began taking the C4 out of the
compartment he had put it in. He set it on the surface.
'Always laughing...always...'
'Johnny!!' the radio cracked, 'Johnny, What's going on?!'
He ignored the voices, he was only interested in the
laughter now.
He set the detonator and laughed manically.
'YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER, DIDN'T YOU?' He yelled as
Houston watched helplessly through the camera. 'YOU'RE NOT
LAUGHING NOW, ARE YOU?!' He started dancing, which looked
strange in low gravity. Then he stood still. He was crying.
'You...you BASTARD! Always laughing...I was never
good...why? You-'
Then he pressed the detonator. The camera was soon consumed,
and the people at NASA could only catch a glimpse of Johnny
burning up and exploding before the picture went black. They
quickly turned on their telescopes and satellites to see
what was going on. About a third of the moon crumbled to
dust and pieces of it were flying at a hellish velocity
towards Earth. There was nothing they could do. A day later,
a large rock hit Paris and demolished everything within a 4
kilometer radius. Meteors bombarded the planet and it took a
week for the showers to stop completely.
Since then, NASA does a much better job of evaluating their
astronauts' psychological state before sending them off to
missions.
What quality in human race gives us the willpower to go the
distance?
Insanity..