When I Kissed the Learned Astronomer
by Jamie Todd Rubin
When I kissed the learned astronomer, I never expected to fall in love, discover
intelligent alien life in the universe, and end up in jail. Up until the moment our
lips first touched, I had never so much as been sent to the principal's office. My
biggest infraction had been fibbing to my folks about looking for after-school
employment. Up to that point, my biggest discovery had been (much to my
dismay) a complete lack of any visible talent in chemistry lab. This made me think
twice about becoming a doctor, veterinarian, chemical engineer, or any other
profession that required mixing skills (including chef), and which resulted in yet
another change in my major.
As for love, well, there was Summer Halfast, but I'm not sure it counts when the
person for whom you pine over doesn't recognize your existence.
Tracing back the chain of events that led to my accidental fame and incarceration,
it boggles my mind to think that it might never have happened if I hadn't been on
that particular shuttle to the moon, and hadn't been assigned that particular seat.
I'm no predestinarian, but it's hard for me to swallow the fact that it was all just
happy circumstance. Yet what else could it be but happy circumstance?
And to think it all started with that kiss. Well, not quite . . .
