Space travel much?

I am now 43 years old and I will be 64 in 2036. The following wish/hope/fantasy is written in response to Maddy at home’s Blogging Event “When I’m Sixty Four”

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“Good evening, this is your Captain speaking. We are now approaching Mars Interplanetary Space Shuttle Station. We expect to be on the ground in about 30 minutes. Weather report says 40 degrees Celsius, sunny and a nice breeze. We may experience light turbulence in our approach.”

Sir Nerdalot looked over at me, and I cringed. There were despair and anger in his eyes. I petted his hand and said “it’s almost over, we’ll soon be landed” Sir Nerdalot did not look impressed. However still handsome. Oh so handsome! His dark hair now had a salt and pepper-quality to it, well the rim of hair he had left. His eyes still sparkly and bright. His smile was still to die for, all clad in beard and mustache. I used to joke about his baldness – I would put my hand on his bald nobbin and claim to be “first one on the moon”, and he would chuckle. He was not chuckling now. He was not gracing me with his fabulous smile. His eyes did not sparkle. He was miserable. He had never fully gotten over his fear of flying. “Of all the stupid things you have made me do, this is by far the stupidest”, I could hear it in his voice that he was not joking.

I tried to reason with him, I used arguments like “you not only survived our vacation on the Moon three years ago, you had a blast” and “we have been everywhere on Earth, where else could we go?”, but to no avail. Sir Nerdalot was very much so uncomfortable on a space shuttle, and he dreaded the landing. All these years it had astounded me that such a logical, analytical and rational mind could be so immensely irrational when it came to flying. It had gotten better over the years, but he was still not loving the thought of flying.

He might see the vacation as stupid now as we had started descending to Mars, but he had absolutely loved it when I gifted him this trip on his 62nd birthday. Yes, I had landed a younger guy. I was a cougar. And damn proud of it too! His, and my, age never mattered, it was the love and the fact that we were extremely compatible that mattered. We both loved travelling and exploring new places. Although we might visit a nice beach and test the water, we would never lay in the sun for any length of time. At restaurants we always tried out the local cuisine, and we made a point of ordering different meals – only so we could stick our forks in each other’s foods and taste a little. For desserts, he would always go for something chocolatey, and I would go for cheesy or fruity. Compatible.

Successfully landed and grounded, Sir Nerdalot let out a sigh of relief. It was over now. The sparkle instantly returned to his eyes, and we were both ready to set out on our Mars-adventure. We had booked the best hotel, and Sir Nerdalot fighting his fear of flying would be well rewarded; I had remembered to pack the Princess Leia gold bikini. He chuckled when I asked him “So where do you want to go for your 72nd birthday? Pluto?”

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Infinite space