Blood Moon Rises, Fizzles Out

This is a fictionalized account of something that actually happened one day. Names have been changed to protect against lawsuits. And protect the innocent, I guess.

Now, I don’t really believe in magic or spirituality or whatever, but a strange thing happened last time I witnessed a blood moon.

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I climbed onto the roof where my best friend was waiting. She was, as was often the case, smoking weed. When I laid down beside her, she offered me a hit, but as I don’t smoke, I refused. That was normal and a bit of a tradition of ours.

Anyway, as we were lying there, waiting for the event to start, we joked around about what would happened because of the blood moon. Neither of us actually believed anything would happen, but we found it amusing nonetheless.

When the moon started changing colors, we went quiet to watch the spectacle. We knew there was a scientific explanation for the red color — something to do with the lunar eclipse — but there was still something powerful about watching it happen.

Then the moon slowly disappeared into the shadow of the earth. All we could hear were animal noises, distant traffic, and each other breathing. It was surreal. As it reappeared, I thought back to a time when I did believe and practice magic. It had been just a few years, but it was interesting. The marvel of the blood moon almost had me thinking I should give my old religion another go. Not quite; I was still too skeptical for that, but almost.

Still, I felt there was something special about the event, like it would affect my life somehow. I didn’t know how, but I knew, and I would find out soon. In a very strange way.

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The next day I went to work at Blackbeard’s Shanty, a fast food restaurant that sold mostly fried fish and chicken. I didn’t have a car so I walked. As I walked up, I saw one of my fellow employers, JB, coming out of the neighboring dollar store. He was pushing a cart full of 2-liters to the restaurant.

I waved at him. “Hey, man. Having a party?”

JB was a big man, and just simply looked like he worked in fast food with his greasy hair and mustache. He was a bit of a conspiracy theorist, but al l right otherwise. He perked up when he saw me. I was one of the few people that willingly listened to his rants. He was one of the few straight guys that didn’t hit on me, overtly or subtly, so I tolerated these rants. Plus, I always believed a part of him knew his theories were crap. “Hey, Tae.” When I walked up to him, he explained the 2-liters. “Our CO2 is out. We’re using these instead of the fountains.”

In case you don’t know, CO2 is what makes soda fizzle. Without it, you have flat drinks. Being in fast food, it’s pretty important.

When we walked into the restaurant, I saw a manager and another employee filling cups with the 2-liters, confirming JB’s story. As I got ready for my shift to start, I proclaimed, “The blood moon strikes!” We all had a quick, little laugh at that as I checked in. Pretty sure it was out of politeness.

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About an hour later, as I was working the drive-thru, my usual position, a woman pulled up to the window and saw that we were not using the fountains. She was wearing a manager’s uniform from Big Clown’s Burgers, a good two miles away from us. I told her what was happening, and she laughed. I almost wondered if she was being snotty, as Big Clown’s Burgers made more money and therefore had nicer facilities than Blackbeard’s Shanty. I dismissed it, though. It just wasn’t that kind of laugh.

“I only asked because we had to do the same thing today,” she said eventually. “For the same reason.”

“Wow! Really?” I was slightly taken aback. As coincidences go, that was an odd one, but still possible. “Blood moon strikes again!”

“I know, right?” She joked a little with me before I handed her her order and she drove off.

As much as I tried to deny it, the idea that the blood moon had affected the CO2 was still rattling in my head when I got off work. I had another employee take me to a convenience store where, thanks to their reward program, I had a free fountain drink coming — a convenience store about a mile from Blackbeard’s Shanty and a mile-and-a-half from Big Clown’s Burger.

After I was dropped off, I went inside and went to the fountain drink area. There was an “Out of Order” sign. I got the snacks I was planning to get anyway and a bottle of the soda I wanted. When I got to the register, I asked, “So, what’s wrong with the fountain drinks?” I had a feeling I knew what the answer was going to be, though.

“Yeah, something’s up with the CO2.”

I was floored. Three places nowhere near each other having the same weird problem on the same day? “That’s so crazy!” I exclaimed. “I work at Blackbeard’s Shanty, obviously,” I pointed to my uniform, “where our CO2 was messed up and a lady from Big Clown’s said they had the same problem.”

“Really? That’s really bizarre.” He was a bit of a low-energy guy.

“Blood moon,” I said.

“Heh. No kidding.”

I might have been trying to pass it off as a joke, but I was starting to freak out when I left the store.

#

I decided to see Megan to help calm me down. She was a gorgeous blonde woman with the prettiest blue eyes. I admit, I had a crush on her at the time. A little part of me still does. But more importantly, she was a good friend and knew how to handle my freak outs whenever they happened.

I gave her the CO2 rundown of the day. “I mean, all three places? Same day? AND that day is the day after the blood moon? I was joking at first, but is it possible? What’s going on?”

Megan knew exactly what to do. She went to the kitchen, grabbed a bag of jalapeño-cheddar cheese puffs and a container of sour cream, sat down on the couch, demanding I do the same, and turned on the T.V. “We have to get your skeptical mind back in gear.”

She went to our favorite video streaming app on the smart T.V. and turned on Phil Neek, the Science Geek. She lit up a bowl of weed and started to smoke it, offering me some. I refused, snacking on the cheese puffs and sour cream, my favorite snack.

I calmed down, but to this day, a part of me wonders if the blood moon rising caused the fizzles to go out.