Welcome to the second Photo Prompt - it's been a while since the first!
Each post features an image, courtesy of photo website, Unsplash, accompanied by a short piece of fiction that the image inspired me to write.
(Photo by Moritz Mentges on Unsplash)
Jeff knew the binoculars were no good, but it's all he had. There'd been a telescope he'd found on eBay the other night but some bugger had outbid him by a considerable amount and Jeff just didn't have the cash to throw about on something he would only discard afterwards.
Therefore it had been a bit of a godsend when the media had got hold of the story, and used their satellites to beam much better pictures than Jeff could ever achieve with a £50 telescope.
The conspiracy theory sites were the first to make claims about a man on the moon. Jeff normally had no time for these idiots, but this time... this time they'd been right, although the inclusion of the 'illuminati' sending their leader up to the moon in an invisible rocket, in their reporting made Jeff laugh outloud.
When the mainstream media first reported it, they'd at least had the decency to check their resources. It had been a prominent astronomer - a distinguished professor with his own decades-long TV show - that had first confessed that there was some merit to the 'fake news' of someone - or at least something - being on the moon. How else would that account for the writing?
As soon as the professor mentioned this, it made headline news around most of the world. Photographs and live footage of the moon were almost a daily feature on the news bulletins. First, being the light-hearted content at the end, just before the weather, but as the days passed it became the number one news item.
Patterns appear to be forming on the surface of the moon...
It looks like the letter 'T'... or could be a cross. A religious sign, perhaps...
After three weeks, we appear to be seeing another pattern - or letter - forming...
It now appears that the first pattern is the letter 'Y'...
Jeff could have contacted the BBC or Sky. Told them all about his drunken challenge to his best mate, Brian. But the media were already becoming inundated with hoax calls of people who knew exactly what was going on, he'd just be treated as another attention-seeker. From 'God' sending a message to his children on Earth to terrorist groups claiming responsibility, they were all rubbish.
One thing Jeff would have to ask his friend next time he saw him was how he managed to get up to the moon in the first place? And so quickly? It had only been a month since Brian had come over and they'd both got drunk on a large case of beer.
The media's interest intensified. A dedicated website was set up, streaming live footage of the moon, 24-7. The site constantly crashed with too many people trying to view it. Morning talk shows had phone-ins, asking the public what they thought was going on. Ironically, some conspiracy sites started declaring that the whole man-on-the-moon thing was a hoax. The US President said it was "... fake, it's just fake, NASA don't like me and they're just doing this to..."
It was near Christmas when Jeff, along with millions of others, watched the news bulletin that finally revealed the message the 'illuminati', 'God' or 'aliens' had written on the moon's surface for the people on Earth.
YOU OWE ME A TENNER, MATE.
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