'One Giant Leap' by Andrew Anderson

My Dad couldn’t afford a television, so I sneaked over to Billy Stewart’s house to watch the moon landing through their sitting room window. Billy wasn’t my friend—not even close—but his curtains were never drawn. Tonight though, he wasn’t in and surprisingly the TV was off.

The room wasn’t empty though; creeping closer, in the room’s half-light, I could see Mrs Stewart on the couch with Mr Peters, cuddling as adults do. A car speeding into the driveway startled me—Mr Stewart had come home early from the factory to see Neil Armstrong make history.

Mr Peters made the real giant leap for mankind, in hopping the back fence. The moon landing was outshone by Mrs Stewart’s shame, when she caught my reflection in the television screen.

I never told anyone.

Other than Billy—as I say, we weren’t friends.