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The shadow of the lava stove started in the corner of the room, a deep red pool that grew from the corner of the stove. It grew and spread across the floor and the walls, liquid and quick, passing over the lip of the stove and stretching over the door toward the boy.
He stood transfixed, watching it in slow motion. He saw his mother, a slender woman with dark eyes, coming down the hall. He saw the shadow of the lava stove behind her, stretching across the door frame, as if to take her by the throat in its fiery grip. As she approached the boy, she smiled and he saw the shadow move forward, her throat aflame.
"You're late again, Max," his mother said as she entered the room. She was wearing one of his father's old space suits, the red and black fabric faded with age.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Mom," he stammered, the tears in his eyes invisible to her.
"What's wrong?"
She stood behind him and put her arms around him, trying to gather him in, to make him feel safe. It was as though she couldn't see the lava behind her. It was as if the shadow were ignoring her.
"I'm late because I was thinking of… being on the moon," he answered.
She pulled away from him and turned toward the stove. "How did that make you late?"
He shrugged and didn't answer, hurrying to his room and shutting the door. He rushed to the closet and pulled his father's old space suit and helmet off the hanger.
The lava stove was behind the door when he left the room. Out in the hall, his mother walked between the lava shadows and reached her hand out toward him, begging him to come back.
He left the house and climbed the old twenty-five-meter hill next to the house. He didn't pay attention, he didn't care. His mind was on the moon. He had gone to the moon. In his mind, he was on the moon with his father. He was going to the moon, like his father before him.
The shadows of the house were behind him as he approached the edge of the lava flow. The shadows of the house were behind him as he slipped through the edge of the lava flow.
He hadn't looked back, tired of seeing his shadow. He was on the moon. His father was still on the moon, and the shadow from his house was far behind him. With all the power the moon had, it could have thrown the entire house, could have thrown the entire Earth, away from him. The boy was as inconsequential as the people who built his house had been there.
He knew it was the right thing to do. Grey couldn't live like that anymore. He couldn't spend his life in his suit. He couldn't spend the last years of his life in the shadows. The shadows had come through the lava to the moon, the shadows had followed him to the moon, and they were living with him in his Spacer City apartment while he lost his memory.
They told him who they were by taking the form of the elevator and turning it into the monster that attacked him. He laughed at the thought of it. They still didn't understand that he had gone to the moon, that somehow he had survived the crash. They still threw the hate at him, they still took the form of people and the forms of the apartment around him.
He walked through the corridors of his apartment, looking through the transparent outer wall of the building. He saw the lava on the floor—the lava that surrounded him, that protected him, that had become his shadow.
"What are you doing?" Poppa asked, sheathing a piece of fallen moon.
"Nothing," he replied.
"Nothing doesn't interest you. You've spent the past few days on the moon," she said, back turned to him.
He turned and began to walk toward her. "I don't have anything to do. All I do is think about the moon, about being on the moon. I don't care about anything else anymore."
"The moon is a great place," she said, looking down.
"You should go there, Poppa. The moon is much more beautiful than this apartment, No sun anymore, no people. All of the ice and rocks are beautiful."
She smiled up at him and he could see the lava shadows on the walls. He could see the lava shadows of the ceiling. He could see the lava shadows reach out for her.
"Why are you doing this?"
"We are trying to help you. You should be more careful. Explosions," he replied, and then turned to reenter the corridor.
"Max," she said, walking to the doorway, looking out at the moon through the ceiling.
Her helmet hadn't been repaired; she didn't have the time. "It is gonna be rough out there, I don't need to tell you that. It's not dangerous, though. I'd feel better if we had a meteor protection. I never got around to it. You're gonna have to be careful, though. When you're out there, you're gonna have earthquakes, you're gonna have lightning storms, and you're gonna have meteors, and asteroids. You might want to make your suit a little more resistant in case of a meteor. More shielding could work. We have a shield in the car. It's a little torn up. If you pass it to me, I can replace it with your suit."
"I'll be fine, Poppa. Thank you for the help. I made the suit for myself and for the lava. There's no other people on the moon. There's no houses. There's no people talking or loud cars. It's just me, Poppa, and the lava that surrounds me."
"You should come back into the house, Max.
"I'm fine where I am. I'm fine where I am," he replied, walking into his room, leaving her with her moon.
He approached the lava wall that stretched around the room and turned off the flame. It didn't hurt him. It didn't hurt him anymore.
Movement—the lava wall shook. It vibrated with movement.
He moved across the lava to the wall, reaching out with his hands. He pressed his hands against the wall. Inside the red shifting wall, his body pressed against the rock. He could feel the burn.
He walked through and looked around the room. The lava had grown more—it had grown almost a meter. It was worse than before. It had grown so much it no longer covered the door. It had grown so much it was able to push against him.
He turned the flame on and walked toward the lava wall. He could see movement inside the red lava. Inside the red shifting lava, the lava shimmered. It brightened as if the lava had shifted into the shape of a man. The lava shined with a white light; his father appeared in the wall. Then he appeared in the lava. Then lava became a man.
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