Outsourcing...

Ricky jumped. As he landed sand flew up in slow motion. Half of it returned to the surface, but the other half flew away as if defying gravity wasn’t even worth showing off. Ricky watched the sand. Even after all this time the lack of gravity still intrigued him. His attention turn to his panoramic view. The endless white sand that reached the horizon, the stars that shown bright, and, most beautiful of all, the earth all green and blue with white clouds covering parts.

Ricky loved spending his few hours outdoors staring at the earth. He wondered what the weather was like on his native planet. Sun? Partly cloudy? Rain? Snow? All these were concepts he barely remembered. He hadn’t been back since he had first left ten years ago.

The American government had paid Ricky and others to move to the moon under the slogan “change your planet”. The idea was for the Americans to show off how advanced they were and that it was in fact possible to live a normal life on the moon. Homes and jobs were provided to the moon pioneers as well as a promise of large pension once they retired.

The pioneers lived fairly normal lives. Every morning, Ricky got up and went to work. In the evening he would hang out with the other moon pioneers. Often, the weekends would consist of parties of people heading outdoors to enjoy the sand, the view, and the lack of gravity.

Today, however, Ricky had decided to take a walk by himself. He was in a reflective mood, wondering what it would have been like to stay on earth. What if he had never left? Would his garage band have ever made it big? Would he just be sitting in a stuffy office crunching numbers? He shrugged his shoulders and started the long trek back the ‘plantation’ as the pioneers called it.

He arrived and entered the transition room. The door to the outside world shut tight as the room slowly pressurized allowing Ricky time to adjust back to the artificial gravity of the indoors. He removed his space suit and walked toward the office.

Time to begin his day of work.

He said hello to the receptionist, Janice. She handed him some memos and he headed towards his desk dumping half the memos in the trash on his way. Once he was seated, he stretched out his arms, cracked his knuckles, and put on his headset. Entering some codes and numbers into the computer he heard the familiar sound of ringing.

Brrrrrring, brrrrring.
“Hello?” a voice answered.
“Hello, is this Mrs. or Mr. Hawthorn?” Ricky asked.
“Yes it is.”
“Are you interested in updating your cable package for only $9.99 per month?”

*Click*