Friendship is Just a Smile Away

In the silence of the night and the stillness of my shadow, I was gazing at the night sky. It was pitch dark and I suddenly noticed a bright beam of light, peeping from behind the clouds in a corner. At that moment anybody who looked at the sky would fall in love with the moon. For a moment I felt pity for the moon being lonely though beautiful.

The rest of the world was asleep except for me and the moon, meditating on each other’s face and expressing our loneliness. 12:45 a.m. I was pretty bored that I thought of making friends with the moon. I looked up at the moon and asked her what she was doing up there, all alone, and that too so late at night.

She replied, “I’m always here watching the waves of the deep blue sea and the greenery of the earth. But one half of the world doesn’t see me and the other half shut their eyes when I come up.” But she was still shining brightly up there, all alone. I was just thinking, why do we people feel so sad when someone close to us do not care about us? Though sad at heart, why can’t we face the world with a smile, just like the moon?

I said to the moon, “But there are few people who keep gazing at you all night. How can you feel lonely when they admire you that way?” I continued, “They even risk their lives and come to space just to click a photo of yours. You should be feeling like a celebrity!” The moon had a slight smile on her face. She said, “Oh! You mean the scientists behind telescopes! They look at me because they get paid for it. And the astronauts come to me for fame – from the very first Neil Armstrong. How typical of you humans! But I surely love posing for them. Ha-ha!”

How true, I thought. We humans would do anything if paid – be it staring at the moon or the sun. These days we even have to pay someone to keep secrets or make them speak the truth! Wealth and fame are all that we think of. Money is our ultimate aim and we think that money can buy everything. How can we be so greedy and materialistic? The moon continued, “But I do have friends like you, who make me smile and keep the night sky shining.” I said to the moon, “Hey, whenever you wish to smile, just pull your cheeks apart or try saying CHEESE. He he!”

Our chat flowed through a lot of topics. We spoke about my family, my school, my friends; then the moon told me about few of her friends, just like me in different countries. She spoke a lot about earth’s natural beauty and about the present day pollution. It seemed like she had a very good view of the blue planet from up there.

At 3:15 a.m. we wished each other a very good night. I saw the moon leave me and go back behind the dark clouds. We had been such good friends in just a few hours time. I promised her to meet every day... sorry, every night. I think when I left she got new company on the other side of the globe. I at least hope so.­­­­­­­­­­­

Finally I went to bed with peace. And I was content that I made my new friend smile. But nobody saw the moon smile except me, because half the world couldn’t see her, and the other half was asleep! It’s so easy to make friends. All it costs you is few hours of talking and a slightly warm smile; or in my words just say “CHEESE”!! Friendship is not a light year or even a mile far, it’s just a smile away!