Their exploratory mission had not borne much fruit so far. Just a rope, a flip flop and a small lizard. The terrain was vast; a huge cement esplanade that had broken into a constellation of craters. In the middle hours of the day, the horizon of their expedition land used to melt bringing together sky and earth in a single white. Since they settled down in that unknown site, becoming their first dwellers, he and his young friends had carried out countless raids across the moon. But that morning a new excitement overtook them. To his eyes, a strange spaceship had landed dragged by a number of operators who had been striving already for hours to set it into motion. He has seen them crossing the gates in the van that was towing the machine. They were not wearing the dark-blue vests of those other outsiders who came everyday at noon to distribute the daily meals. So he had run towards them with curiosity. After talking with some of the dwellers, the spaceship operators had decided to move to the other side and set their thing on the moon.

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Its metallic surface reflected the surrounding landscape. It had four telescopic legs that ended in wheels, different deployable trays at various heights, and a series of brass umbrella-like devices that crowned the entire artefact. Besides, the operators had displayed a number of extensible dusters, screens and movable cameras around it. They had poured water, raw lentils and a variety of vegetables into it, but the spaceship had remained motionless. Something in their calculations seemed to have failed, and as time passed, some of the operators decided to drop the unsuccessful operations, leaving those still hopeful alone with the machine. A bit disappointed, he and his friends followed them to their van, asking yet getting as response no more than a series of gestures that made him laugh. Altogether they came back with an enormous pot, which they placed beside the failed spaceship. They repeated the operation: lentils, vegetables and water. After a while, the concoction started boiling. –I told you! –One of the outsiders said to another while winking his eye. –These people think that because they come from the North they are infallible. Look now at their ridiculous kitchen! 

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Facing more waiting ahead, he decided to resume the exploratory mission. He asked one of the outsiders –a seemingly friendly lady– to join him. From his position, he weighed the idea of a new raid of the moon, whose surface at that moment looked as if it would start to burn. He took the smiley lady by the hand and the two of them left.

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The atmosphere felt dense, rarefied, but it was a relief to be in that gloom for a while. The large windows at the rear had been blinded and the only light came from a small opening on the wall that framed the dwellers´ settlement as if it were a panoramic photograph of a time difficult to determine. They sighted three men in the distance, they were wearing the dark-blue vests. He urged her to hide behind the dusty shelves that divided the space into endless corridors. A huge door opened, a truck came in. He pushed her a bit forward along the corridor until they reached the first row of cardboard boxes. Blankets, shampoo bottles, soap, more blankets, tomato cans. The next finding seemed to satisfy him. He started to fill the pockets of his pants with the small boxes of coloured chalks. When the last box he managed to stack on his arms reached the height of his eyes, he looked at her, who had been standing very still beside him doubting what to do. She looked through the shelves weighing the maneuver. The men in the dark-blue vests seemed busy unloading the newly arrived truck. She filled her arms with the small boxes, only five more than her partner in crime, who was just a few centimeters shorter. He retook the lead and holding their breath they made it to the small door through which they had entered. 

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Back on the moon the scene was different. The former desolate landscape had become a lively prairie in which most of the dwellers ate as they chatted animatedly with each other and the group of outsiders. The spaceship was still there, as a quirky landmark long in decay. Eager to try out his newly seized booty, he found no other surface but the moon´s one itself. Some others joined him too. Soon, a large tapestry of intense colours had taken over a great share of the pale moon. He looked for the outsider lady, who now seemed to him a little less outsider and a little less lady. She drew a house, but the moment she finished it, she erased it.  She asked her new friend what to draw. He said a house.

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As the sky darkened, the dwellers returned to the other side and the outsiders left taking the spaceship with them. He turned back to the moon. It was alone again. He liked its new look. He thought he had a lot of work ahead.

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