Moon Cycles

Shasta walked done the hall and stopped fast. Nevada's office was full of flowers. She stuck her head in.

"What is this?"

"It is my moon day." Nevada looked up.

"But you have a moon day every month. We all do. Why a room full of flowers on this one?"

Nevada put her pencil down and brushed the flowers out of the way. She looked at Shasta with her still quite youthful face. "Twelve moon days, one full sun year. My mother follows the old calender."

"Old calender?"

"Before I was born, everyone had a birthday based on the the path the earth took around the sun. One full path took one year, thus one birthday a year. If we still followed it I would only be 30 years not 360+ Moons old." She smiled. "I'm not counting higher, all my life those months of two full moons has thrown me off. Let DMV do the math."

Shasta took a seat. "Before we converted back to the ancient ways, where the cycle of the moon held more power over us than the lone sun. Wow, that must have been confusing."

Nevada nodded. "Yup. A world in which so called experts told you when to plant a tree or start a new job. Now we have relearned that the waxing moon, when it goes from new to full is the time to plant, start something new and the waning time is the time to pull weeds, clean house, banish spirits. And our menstrual cycles run on a lunar model"

Shasta looked at the nearest plant and touched the leaves. "What wonders it has been. We as a race and as a society get more done."

"She is always telling me there is a downside. I don't know what it is."

Someone knocked on the door. "Nevada you must see this. On the tv"

They got up and headed into the conference room. On the tv was a group of elderly woman outside the headquaters to Motherland Management. In 2016 Motherland had replaced Homeland as the nations powerhouse of security. And they had also been responsible for the last half a "old style" century of the shift back to an past and ancient way of dealing with everything from politics...

To time.

Nevada's eyes widen when she saw her mother.

Shasta read the print on the bottom of the screen. "She wants the old calender back."

"The government won't go for it, it is a mans calender. We are a race of responsible women now." Someone said.

"Who, every three to four weeks, try kill each other because of our periods." Shasta muttered. She turned up the volume.

"We can't read many ancient documents anymore as they were based on the old solar calender. We can't run the old computer programs that survived the 2012 shift that still do work, our children don't understand the old shows and books that survived. We have lost more than we gained. Does it matter if someone is 450 moons old? Isn't it easier to say 37 and a half years old? And all parenting guides had to be rewritten. All of us here raised our kids on the moon calender and we don't know if we raised them right or how old they really are."

Nevada walked off, Shasta followed.

"I'm sorry for your mom and that she is still hung up on the newer old way"

Nevada went back into her office and turned sharply to her friend. "She isn't hung up!" Calmer, "Ok, she is but it is all she knew. When it changed it was so sudden, one day she was 35 the next day over 420 moons. a few weeks later I was born. The new government and the Moon Group of Motherland didn't allow public teaching of what her generation knew. We made lots of improvements with it but we also lost a lot. I bet that was the downside she always hinted at. What we lost was our other history. The history between the ancient ways and the now." She looked around the room. "I always liked history."

"So what are you thinking? I see it in your eyes"

Nevada touched her flowers and breathed in the smell. Rich sweet scent that didn't care how old she was, moon or sun wise.

"I'm going down to Motherland. We can keep the moon months but we should have some of the other ways back. I like thinking I'm only 30 years old better." She looked at Shasta. "Wanna come."

Shasta sat undecided and unsure.

WDC word count: 764