Gerald

Gerald was grey-all-over old, that’s the first thing I noticed about him. He was tall, about six feet ten, had a long, straggly, grey beard and was wearing a checked blue jumper, which looked and smelt as if it dated back to the early 2000s.

Gerald was a primate, seemingly closer to an ape than a human, though not any species of ape I had previously encountered.

He sat down opposite me and stared at me, with wide, dark, soulful eyes.

“Terrence Oblong,” he said. It wasn’t a question, more like a statement.

“That’s right,” I said. “You wanted to talk.”

He paused for several seconds before speaking again. “What do you want to know?” he said.

“You’re a throwback,” I said. “What does that mean exactly?”

“It means I’m an evolutionary freak. A reversion to an ancestral form.   I’m a reawakened gene, a reappearance of a long-lost human ancestor.”

“So are you ape or human?”

“Who know? I never been categorized. I not from any extant form of ape, but I not human. I am a forgotten tread on the genetic journey from ape to man.”

His pronunciation of the phrase ‘genetic journey’ was something of a journey in itself, his guttural voice and limited jaw making such words difficult.

“Were you treated as a human or as an ape?”

“I grow up human. My parent love me they did. I grow up in little village. In my village all children different, all children treated fair.”

“So it didn’t matter that you were hairy. That you were essentially an ape?”

“It matter. I different. I taunted, but not big school, not many children, I given one to one by teacher. I allowed to grow. I get O Level. I get A level. I get prize. I get award.”

“What about when you left school?” I asked.

“When I leave, only then I have trouble. I try find a job. I go to big town. I go to John Lewis, they tell me we can not employ you, you don’t meet our criteria. I go to C&A, they tell me we can not employ you, you don’t meet our criteria. I go to Woolworth, they tell me we can not employ a monkey.”

“But you did find work eventually?”

“Then I go circus, they say we have job for you. You can be our freak.”

“So you were working at a circus. How did you go from circus freak to working for NASA?”

“I do exam. Every child in my village enter for national exam. Even the hairy one. I came top. Math, Physic, top in the whole country.”

“N.A.S.A.”, he articulated each letter separately and carefully, “They plan trip to moon. They need top mathematician in the world. Top physician in world.”

“So they tracked you down to the circus?”

“Man came up to me after performance. ‘You want to leave circus?’ he said. ‘Join N.A.S.A.?’ I leave circus.”

“What was it like moving to America?”

“Everything different. Big place.”

“How were you treated?”

“Very well. N.A.S.A. know I good. They need good people and they let me get on with my work. I paid much money.”

“What about your fellow scientists? Did they respect an ape-like scientist?”

“They know I good. We work together. I do well, they do well. Do I go to bar with them after day of work? No, I not invited to do that. But at work, they treat me well. And then there Geraldine.”

“Geraldine.”

“Geraldine like me. From America, but another throwback. Another ape.”

“And she had the same skillset as you.”

“We the top. We programme the code, we do the math. We two of a kind in every way.”

“So two ape-like throwbacks were central to the moon mission.”

“We central to the project. Without Geraldine and I, well, you ever wonder why we never go back?”

I said nothing in response, just nodded encouragement.

“The moon landing, it faked, you know that don’t you?”

“Faked? You can’t be serious?”

“Anyone with a normal human body could not live on the moon. The human body isn’t able to remain alive in that environment. The unfiltered crepuscular ray would kill in next to no time. But N.A.S.A. found a way around the problem. Me and Geraldine were not as vulnerable, we were tougher, protected by body hair, thick derma.”

“So the moon landings DID take place.”

“The moon landing did take place, but there were no man in the moon. Only me and Geraldine. They filmed a fake landing with human astronaut, which is why it look fake now. I mean, wind-blown flag, it a very poor fake. Convince no-one.”

“So the moon landings WERE faked, there they DID take place. Just not with Buzz Aldrin, Neil Armstrong et al.”

“That right. This was most watched TV programme ever, they couldn’t film a pair of monkey going to the moon. The greatest achievement in the history of mankind and it is achieved by a monkey!”

“So what happened on the moon?”

“We get to moon. We on dark side, out of view of man. We take rock, we take sample, we put down flag, we look at Earth and go ‘wow’. Then the craft arrive.”

“The craft?”

“The lunar craft. The other craft.”

“There was a second spacecraft on the moon?”

“Another craft. But not from Earth. Not directly. It was us.”

“Us? You mean the US?”

“No, it was our kind. The craft landed and a group of beings just like myself and Geraldine stepped out. Our ancestor. Your ancestor too, but they look like us.”

“So you’re saying that a spaceship piloted by your ancestors landed on the moon while you were there.”

“They explain their history. My ancestor,  they achieve more than mankind, they far in advance. Many year ago, they leave Earth, the move to another planet. Many light year away. But they watch Earth, they watch man. They watch trip to moon. They come to moon when we there.”

“So our ape-like ancestors were technically advanced and colonized another planet, but were keeping watch on mankind and saw your visit to the moon.”

“They come. They say to me and Geraldine, ‘come with us’. Geraldine, she go.”

“Geraldine left with the other ship?  Why didn’t you leave with her? If they were your kind?”

“I have too much here. My family. My friend. “

“So with Geraldine leaving, you were alone.”

“I not alone, but I last of my kind.”

“After the moon mission, what happened. Did you stay at NASA?”

“I had money. I not need the grief. I buy house, I live new life. I go to college. I become academic. I mostly write paper. I not teach. Pupil not want to be taught by monkey. I write. I read. Many year go by. I retired now.”

“You’ve never told your story before. Why are you telling it now? And why me?”

“Why? I die. Very old. Very near death. Very much wrong with me. If I no tell now I never tell.”

“And why did you choose me? Out of all the writers and journalists in the world?”

“You nobody. You Terrence Oblong. Nobody read Terrence Oblong. I make commitment to never tell. But I tell you. I know it recorded, but nobody read it.”

“Thank you for your time. Thank you for sharing your story.”