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What drives people to excellence? Why do they commit their entire life to something relentlessly and invest all their energies to having it done the best possible way? What quality in the human race gives us the power to go the distance? Johnny Dermont was born on a sunny day in 1951. From his birth, when his little blue eyes looked at the sky for the very first time, his parents knew he would amount to something great. From a very early age he was fascinated by the stars. ‘What are those shining dots in the sky, dad?’ he would ask again and again, even after he knew the answer. ‘Those are stars, son,’ his father would replay, again and again, ‘very far away from here.’ ‘And what’s that big shiny one?’ ‘That’s the moon, son.’ His father would smile. Johnny was in love with the moon, his parents proclaimed. He would look at it intently for hours at a time, as if it was speaking to him. Johnny was a very bright young man, as he was creative and friendly. In kindergarten he was the center of the group. All the boys admired him and all the girls loved him. When he got to first grade he could already read and write and he understood math perfectly. Studying came easy to him, and he would often spend a lot of his after school hours helping his friends who were having trouble understanding the material. But never changing, in the early hours of the night, he would stand in the backyard and look at the stars. He would feel restless and tense if he couldn’t find the moon and he would run around the house until he got a good angle of it. On a moonless night, his father would have to explain to him that sometimes we cannot see the moon because the Earth’s shadow covers it. Nevertheless, Johnny would look to the sky, trying to see through the dark. He simple had to see the moon every night. His father was bursting with pride. Such a smart boy, and so fascinated with knowledge! It was sad when he was moved up a class and so had to part with some of his friends who were left in second grade. Third grade, however, proved to be a cinch for him as well and he made new friends quickly. Even there he would help other children. His mother worried that the bigger kids would hate him, be jealous because he was so much smarter and younger than they. But Johnny had such a compelling personality that they all loved him. Time seemed to fly by and soon he was in high-school and very eager to hear news of the war. He would watch the TV for every bit of information he could get, and when he graduated, top of his class and valedictorian, he immediately signed up for the army. His mother and father were scared but so proud of him. He signed up for the air-force and became the best pilot in his division. He flew to missions across the world and always came back the victor. His friends all looked up to him and he was always expected to lead. He decided to start a career in the military and became an officer. He was renown throughout the country for all his actions and was greatly respected by all his superiors. But even though he was an integral part of the air-force he always made room for home and mom’s cooking, and even then, he would sit outside at evenings and look at the moon. He never forgot his dreams. He found time to settle down, as well. While buying groceries he bumped into a young woman, Laura Skinner. The two fell in love almost at once and had a long and trusting relationship before they finally wed. It was then that Johnny decided he would fulfill the greatest dream he had and applied for NASA. He was worried they wouldn’t accept him, but everyone who knew and loved him knew he was worried for nothing. Shortly he received a reply, happily accepting him to the agency. The training was hard and long, but Johnny passed it all with flying colors, like he did everything in his life. And then the day came. He was picked to fly a mission to the moon, to gather rocks for research. He was so happy he cried. The family had a huge party at home, Johnny and Laura and their two kids, Robby and Denise. Everyone was invited, and everyone came. They all wanted to congratulate Johnny, saying no one deserved this more. The night before the mission, Johnny looked deeply into his wife’s eyes, and then up to the moon. ‘I’ll see you soon, you son of a bitch.’ Laura laughed. Johnny was always so playful about everything. She looked at him, staring at the moon, acting all serious. He then looked back at her, as if he forgot she was there. He kissed her smoothly and said he wanted to walk along a bit, to gather his thoughts. They kissed again and he walked away. The next day he was all ready, sitting in the commander’s chair of the ship “Arrow”. The launch was executed without flaw, and the crew was under way. The team was astonished by their captain as he piloted the ship perfectly. They were inspired by his will to reach the moon, how he wouldn’t let his eyes off it. When their journey was at an end they began their landing. They touched down smoothly and began preparations to step out to the surface. Why was Johnny so relentless? Why did he thrive to be the best and to get where he got? Johnny lived in agony. Since he could remember himself, Johnny would always look at the moon. He liked the moon at first, he could swear he did, but the moon, it was always laughing at him. Sometimes it was laughing so hard that it was shaped like a great, big, condescending smile. When he was older he’d heard some scientific reason on why the moon looked like that, but he knew it was nonsense. The moon was laughing at him. What am I doing wrong? He would think. Why are you laughing at me!? But nothing. The moon would only look and sneer. Johnny was the best at everything, just to show the moon he was, but the moon never cared. Even when the moon was hidden in the shadow Johnny could hear the laughter, and it angered him. He decided to get even with the moon, flying so high up above, thinking it could mock people without retaliation. If there’s one think he learned at the air-force it’s that you can always retaliate. He became an astronaut, the best one, and on the night before his launch he got into the ship’s hanger and planted as much C4 on it as he could without anyone noticing it. He went back home, the moon laughing in his head. ‘Keep laughing you son of a bitch, you just keep on laughing. In a few days the last laugh will be mine.’ As the astronauts were walking on the surface, Johnny suddenly ran to the back of the ship. He pulled out a harpoon. He shot the engineer first, harpooned him through the gut. He screamed for a second and then floated silently to the ground. Johnny yanked the hook out of the engineer’s body and reloaded the harpoon. He aimed it at the other astronaut. ‘Johnny! What are you doing?!’ He was holding a camera that was broadcasting right to Houston. Johnny fired at him and the hook hit his helmet, breaking it. He suffocated and collapsed, the camera still clutched in his hand. Johnny tossed the harpoon away and began taking the C4 out of the compartment he had put it in. He set it on the surface. ‘Always laughing…always…’ ‘Johnny!!’ the radio cracked, ‘Johnny, What’s going on?!’ He ignored the voices, he was only interested in the laughter now. He set the detonator and laughed manically. ‘YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE BETTER, DIDN’T YOU?’ He yelled as Houston watched helplessly through the camera. ’YOU’RE NOT LAUGHING NOW, ARE YOU?!’ He started dancing, which looked strange in low gravity. Then he stood still. He was crying. ‘You…you BASTARD! Always laughing…I was never good…why? You-‘ Then he pressed the detonator. The camera was soon consumed, and the people at NASA could only catch a glimpse of Johnny burning up and exploding before the picture went black. They quickly turned on their telescopes and satellites to see what was going on. About a third of the moon crumbled to dust and pieces of it were flying at a hellish velocity towards Earth. There was nothing they could do. A day later, a large rock hit Paris and demolished everything within a 4 kilometer radius. Meteors bombarded the planet and it took a week for the showers to stop completely. Since then, NASA does a much better job of evaluating their astronauts’ psychological state before sending them off to missions. What quality in human race gives us the willpower to go the distance? Insanity. How did you like this text? You have to be logged on to be able to rate and comment. Logon or Register , it won't take up more than 10 seconds of your time. Rating  Current rating is: 4 5 readers have rated this text Author's description What drives people to excellence? Comments Ronnie Barzilai, 8 March 2008: An amazing writer with an implacable talent to swift his readers up from their seats. Some would say that scientist can research the human mind forever, but my friend you have detailed the manuscript to what a person is capable of doing with unstoppable drive in his mind. Gangsta ! marc rakotolahy, 3 March 2008: What quality in human race gives us the willpower to go the distance? Insanity. What quality in Johnny gave him the willpower to go the distance? Would be a more appropriate way to say it, I think!!! I loved reading your story. From the beginning I could see the witty and intelligent writer who would want to make an irrefutable demonstration. The exercise is very well done, except that the point is not so obvious to make despite the literary skill. One might call diversity (in its tolerant aspect) into help. One should not question or doubt anyone or anything that is not within the perceived norm. In your town, country, region…..there are people who are fully part of society and can show any sort of excellence. Skills and the satisfaction derived from them can be a source of excellence. Passion for something or someone can also be a source of excellence. And a lot more….. Ghost Writer, 28 April 2006: True; all of that. Alastair Ingason, 14 November 2004: An excellent read, full of expectation and hope this starts as a remarkable story about a remarkable man. However that all changes when it’s too late, and the story plays well into this turn of events. Well written and addictive to read, a clever way of explaining excellence. Mona Unaiz, 8 September 2004: A very well written piece of work that portray the human psychology of extremism very beautifully. Anonymous, 2 September 2004: Fantastic! |
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