Read Once in a Blue Moon for Free Online

board, which
he finally picked up and held so they could see.
    Even in the dim light
she saw it was covered with hand-drawn moons in various stages of
lunar phase, dates written beside each one. At the bottom was a
time line, with more dates written in. He’d worked really hard on
this project.
    He
cleared his throat importantly. “Okay, do I have a story for you.
Here’s the deal. Blue moons happen,” he turned on the flashlight
and pointed the beam at his notes on the table. “I mean,
they occur when
there are two full moons in the same month. Usually on the first
and the thirty-first day of the month. Any questions so far?” He
looked at Melissa.
    Keeping her gaze
squarely on him to avoid looking at the moon, she shook her
head.
    Richard raised a hand.
“I have a question.”
    Jeremy looked delighted
and Melissa wished she’d thought of one. “Yes?”
    “How often do blue
moons occur, and can they be predicted?”
    Jeremy pointed to some dates on the time line. “They don’t
happen very often. Usually every two-and-a-half years or even
longer. That’s why there’s the expression ‘once in a blue moon’
because they don’t take place very often. But they can be predicted. And
see these dates at the bottom? These are the dates the last fifty
blue moons happened. I memorized them for extra credit on my
project. Do you want to hear me recite them?”
    Jessica rolled her
eyes. “No way. We’ll be here all night. Just tell me how come blue
moons aren’t blue?”
    “Well, the moon
actually can look blue if there’s a large volcanic eruption or if
there is a big forest fire or something. The ash or smoke
disrupt--”
    ”That’s not what I
asked, dummy. I asked why the blue moon isn’t blue.”
    “Because it’s just an
expression, stupid.”
    “Kids,” Richard’s tone
held reproof.
    Jeremy shook his head.
“Okay, now everyone look at the moon. I want you to notice how big
it looks.”
    Melissa froze, her gaze
automatically going to the ground.
    Jeremy sighed. “Mom,
you’re not looking.”
    Again she was gripped
by sudden, inexplicable dread. She knew she was being unreasonable.
She’d made it out here just fine, hadn’t she? She was already
sitting in the moonlight, wasn’t she? Slowly, very slowly, she
forced herself to look up at the moon.
    The white orb was
bright, very clear, the craters visible. She gazed at it, and
slowly relaxed. Why, it was beautiful; and everything was fine.
There was nothing here to fear and to prove it to herself, she
tried to close her eyes, to look away. She couldn’t.
    Fear exploded, harsher
than before; dizziness gripped her hard, and her stomach started to
heave as her heart pounded violently in her chest. Still she
couldn’t look away.
    Making an inarticulate
noise, she grabbed for Richard, but he fell to his knees and out of
her reach and she missed him. She tried to speak, but her throat
was tight and no sound escaped. In her peripheral vision, she saw
Jessica and Jeremy fall to their knees.
    The moon. All she could
see was the moon. It pulsated, called to her, pulled at her, at her
stomach, at her very soul.
    She
pushed past the tightness in her throat and screamed, could hear
her children screaming. Her
children . Anguish ripped through her. She
should have warned them; why hadn’t she warned them?
    Richard yelled her name
and she fought as hard as she could, fought to look away as the
moon increased in size then hurtled toward her.
    Everything went white,
and she plummeted.
    * * *
    Melissa woke slowly,
head pounding, mouth dry as sawdust, bright sunlight stinging her
eyes, and every muscle in her body throbbing. She must have stayed
up all night again and fallen asleep at her desk.
    She groaned. She needed
to get up and get going; get to work. She had a lot to do today.
Had she accomplished any work last night? Or did she need to play
catch up today? She couldn’t remember; couldn’t seem to
concentrate.
    Something wasn’t right.
She was cold, and