172 Hours on the Moon Read Online Free PDF

dark,
     and the tourists were cramming themselves into its elevators like sardines for the ride to the top. One time he and Simone
     had done that, too. It had been a little cheesy, obviously. No Parisian with any self-respect would go up to the top of that
     tourist trap. But you couldn’t ignore the fact that there was something romantic about it, and Simone had loved it.
    It had been a few weeks before Christmas. He’d waited for her in the bitter cold by the north foot of the tower. She’d been
     half an hour late, and his hands were almost blue when she finally showed up. Luckily she’d let him warm them up in her sweater
     while they rode the elevator to the top. Antoine had waited until the other tourists finished looking at the view and disappeared
     back down to pull a bottle of wine out of his inside coat pocket. They’d shared the ice-cold bottle of red and then she’d
     told him she loved him. But then that must have been in November.
    Five months earlier.
    Relationships should really come with expiration dates stamped on them so at least people would have a chance to get out before
     the whole thing turned totally rancid.
    He kept going along rue de Rivoli. Most of the shops were closed for the night, and aside from the incessant, loud traffic,
     the long street was pretty much devoid of people. He thought about what she was doing right now. It had only been an hour
     since he was sitting on her bed in her apartment on the beautiful avenue de Suffren, but that was all in the past.
    Was
he
there yet?
    Was Noël sitting in her room? Had Noël just walked in and replaced him?
    Was she happy, or was she still thinking about him? Not that knowing would do him any good. Part of him hoped she was sobbing
     and miserable, that she was regretting how she’d acted, that she would be run over by a train on her way to school tomorrow.
     Part of him hoped she would fall down onto the tracks and that the train wheel would slice her skull in half, that her guts
     would ooze out her mouth and her blood would spray up onto the terrified commuters. And then there was the other part of him,
     the part that still loved her with all his might. The part that wanted her to have the best life possible, whether with him
     or with someone who made her happier than he could.
    Antoine painstakingly ran through the last several months to understand why she’d broken up with him. Was it something he
     did? Something he said? Or something he didn’t do or didn’t say? He desperately racked his brain for the answer, an obvious,
     clear solution that would make him turn around and go back, ring her doorbell and say,
Yes, I’m sorry for what I did
.
    But sometimes it’s already too late before you open your mouth.
    The boat had simply sailed on their relationship. And it hadn’tjust left port. The whole pier had been torn down, the water drained, and the whole place converted into the world’s loneliest
     parking lot.
    Suddenly Antoine wished he could just disappear for good and never see Simone or this city or this world again.
    “Pardon me. Do you have a light?”
    Antoine stopped. A man in his forties in a suit was standing on the sidewalk in front of him, blocking his way. He was fumbling
     with a pack of cigarettes.
    “Just a sec.” Antoine searched his jacket pockets and found a lighter. He passed it to the man, who lit it.
    “You wouldn’t happen to have a cigarette, too?”
    “Sure,” Antoine replied, perplexed that the man didn’t just take one out of his own pack.
    “Thanks,” he said.
    “No problem.”
    The man nodded at an enormous billboard over the shop across the street.
    “Don’t forget about the deadline, eh?” he said, and started walking away. Antoine didn’t have a chance to respond before the
     man disappeared down the street.
    Antoine glanced at the billboard. It was black, with an enormous moon half hidden in shadows:
    DO YOU WANT TO GO TO THE MOON ?
    He’d heard about the mission and that NASA