Celebrating A Special Lady: Going To The Moon (!?)

Going to the moon? Wait a minute, I can't be left out! As a child I'd always imagined myself floating with the clouds around the sky and waving at my friends below. So when I heard Maa with her women friends discussing about 'the moon' and 'going to the moon', I told myself "This is It!" There was no way I was going to miss that lifetime opportunity.

I inched closer to get more details (like the daparture time, what was required etc), but the discussion was so coded. Nothing made any sense to my little 4 year old brain. One thing I was certain of though, one of them was 'going to the moon', and I had to go too.

Immediately the friends left, I went to Maa and told her I wanted to go too and she had to take me or let me go with her friend. She just laughed and told me not to be silly.
What was she thinking?!
"She isn't going to stop me," I told myself. I tried all sorts of blackmails which did not work with her. When I mentioned going to get information from someone else, she openned up and this is the conversation that followed:

Maa: You are serious about this, right?

Myself: Yes Maa.

Maa: Going to the moon is very easy. You don't have to climb any tree or ladder to get up there. Simply sit on a chair when the moon is up and it will come and rest on your chair. And voila! you are on the moon! The moon comes to you, you don't go to it.

Myself: Will it carry me up to the sky?

Maa: Yes, it will.

Myself: Just like that?

Maa: Yes, but you should also remember that there is only one moon and so many people waiting for it.

The nights that followed I was always on the lookout for the moon with my chair ready to be carried up the sky. You can imagine what happened. Night after night I kept hoping, hoping that the moon would come down and carry me.

Maa, having watched me for several nights, one day told me this:
"It will only visit you when you reach a certain age and will continue till you become like me."

I ignored her and continued my night watch praying that I be the youngest girl to be visited. Nothing happened. No moon came down.

I later learned that 'going to the moon', a direct translation from my mother tongue, simply meant the monthly menses women experience
Wonderful! Just too wonderful! Having waited all those nights!