The Earth glowed in an opalescent haze against its star-studded backdrop. It’s rich blue oceans and velvet-like continents were swirled in billowing clouds that reminded me of icing on a cake. It seemed to emanate light from somewhere within the core, somewhere so bright and powerful that its luminosity radiated out to the surface. So pristine, so flawless – no one would ever guess that it was not fit to sustain life. Not from this beautiful view.

I sat on the exterior, fingering the static-gray dust that iced the surface of the Moon. Gloves wrapped my fingers, obscuring my sense of touch, but I’ve always imagined that it feels like powdered sugar. I’ve lived my entire life in this monotone world of one color, one texture, one same view of the planet that I should have been thriving on.

It wasn’t my fault that the pollution caused a runaway greenhouse effect. Nor was it my fault that waste products piled up faster than they could be eliminated. I couldn’t have stopped the smog from suffocating our preciously thin layer of the atmosphere, or my ancestors from industrializing to a hazardous level. None of it was my fault.

Then why was I facing the consequences?

Seventeen years old and nowhere to go. I can’t travel. I can’t sit in a garden in the sunshine and enjoy nature. No waxy leaves, no gently lilting petals that flutter in the breeze. We do have an agriculture unit in our underground colony, but authorization is strictly limited to employees.

The only time outside that I get is my hour here on the surface. Under the endless showering of eternal lights, I can let my mind wander to distant galaxies and universes.

“Evelyn!” a voice buzzed into my radio. I clicked on the microphone in my mask and responded.

“This is she.”

“Evelyn, its Mom. Your hour is almost up. You’d better start walking soon.”

“Okay, Mom. I’ll be there in a minute.”

I clicked off the radio and brushed off my hands on the leg of my suit. Gray powder smeared the white material in an arc. It looked like the shape of something that my teacher showed my class years ago. What was it called?

Oh, a rainbow! Stripes of colors blending flawlessly into a translucent crescent that painted the sky when it rained. How strange would it be to have water fall from the sky in droplets instead of just coming out of a faucet? Wouldn’t everything blend into a soggy mess?

“Evelyn!” my mom’s voice clicked onto the radio again. “Let’s get going, honey!”

“I’m coming!”

Turning to leave the outside world, I took one last glance at the Earth. It seemed to wink at me like an old friend. Glowing, shining, radiating that beautiful inner light, just like it always did. No matter what we humans had done to abuse it.

“Until tomorrow,” I said to the blue marble in the sky.

It really was a beautiful view.