The Space Mission Adventure

  Ziggy nodded, but he looked worried. Suddenly, WHOOSH! The seats were launched into the air, and Ziggy didn’t even have time to scream. His hair went straight up as his body rushed straight down. By the time they landed, he had found his voice. “Zowie! I have found my destiny! Let’s do it again!”

  Samantha, watching from the ground and holding everyone’s glasses and flip-flops, let them ride a second time. This time, Ziggy managed to scream before the air was forced from his lungs.

  “Whee! You are really lucky, Ms. Washington,” he said to her as they were being unstrapped, “to get to do cool stuff like this every day.”

  “Not all of it is rides in simulators like this. We have to do math and science calculations and lots of reading as well,” she explained as they were unlatched from the seat and headed back to the cafeteria.

  “Did they teach you about the monkeynauts in space school?” Neil asked. His red spiked hair seemed to stand up even higher after the Space Shot simulator ride.

  Alan, whose hair matched his brother’s wind-tossed spikes, added, “Ziggy thinks the monkeys were really space creatures in disguise.” He laughed a little and tried to make his voice sound like he doubted Ziggy, but he looked directly at the astronaut as he spoke.

  “I don’t think Abel and Baker were Martians, if that’s what you’re asking,” she replied with sincerity. “They were just little monkeys who helped us figure out how to live outside the boundaries of this earth.”

  “So who takes the bananas?” Rico asked. “Ziggy thinks that aliens are to blame.”

  “Hey, mon! Everybody keeps saying what Ziggy thinks, mon, and making me sound like I’m wacked!” He looked around and grinned. “Well, maybe I am, but suppose I’m right? Suppose the bananas really are being eaten by the space creatures that live in the giant shuttle in Rocket Park. What if what we think are just skinny brown squirrels are really spacemen checking us out? Suppose nothing is as it seems and I’m right?”

  No one answered for a moment.

  Finally Ms. Washington took a deep breath and spoke. “Let’s all sit down for a moment—right here on the grass. Is that okay, Samantha?”

  Samantha nodded, looking as interested as the kids.

  Ms. Washington began, “You are a dreamer, Ziggy, and that’s probably the best thing in the world you can be. All young people should have imaginations like yours. It’s always been dreamers who change the world by making new and wonderful discoveries.”

  Cubby raised his hand, as if he were in school. “You mean like Christopher Columbus and Galileo?”

  “Yes. Exactly. Columbus didn’t think the world was flat, as many people of his time assumed it was. Folks then believed if a ship went too far, it would fall off the edge of the earth!”

  “That’s silly,” Jessica said, laughing. “Everybody knows the world is round.”

  “But hundreds of years ago, everybody didn’t. Columbus was a dreamer who looked at things differently. And in Galileo’s time, people thought the earth, not the sun, was the center of our universe,” Ms. Washington explained.

  “The Wright brothers believed that airplanes could work,” Nicolina added.

  “Good! So, what I’m trying to say is that even though the bananas are probably taken away each night by the sanitation crew, and the Pathfinder shuttle is filled with cement . . .” She glanced up at a brown squirrel scampering in an oak tree near them. “And even though that’s probably really a squirrel, that doesn’t mean that Ziggy is wrong to wonder or to question or to push the limits of his imagination.”

  “See, I told you!” Ziggy said.

  Samantha nodded. “Ziggy may very well be an explorer or discoverer of things we’ve never dreamed of,” she added.

  “If it’s strange food combinations, I think he’s already there!” Rashawn said, smiling. “At lunch today he put green Jell-O in his taco!”

  “Ooh, yuck!” they all said as they got up and headed down the path once more.

  As they headed toward the Habitat, Ziggy touched the pocket of his pants. He took a deep breath and seemed to make a decision. “Hey, Ms. Washington. Thanks for making me look not so dumb out there. My mind just grabs on to ideas and rides with them, you know.”

  She laughed and looked at him kindly. “That’s the mind of a future astronaut for sure!”

  “May I ask you one more thing?”

  “Sure, Ziggy, go ahead. I love the way your group is so observant and asks so many good questions.”

  Ziggy removed the strange, shiny item from his pocket. “I hope you don’t think this is dumb.” He held it in his fist. “Can you look at this for me? My friends think this is just another example of my imagination working overtime because I was sure it came from space or something.”

  Ms. Washington gasped and reached out her hand for Ziggy’s green stone. He handed it to her, and she grasped it gently. “Where did you find this, Ziggy?”

  “On the floor near the moon gravity simulator. Is it . . . uh . . . from space?”

  “No, it isn’t.” She took a deep breath. “It came from Chicago.”

  “Huh?” Ziggy looked confused. “How do you know?”

  “Because it belongs to me. My grandmother gave it to me when I was a little girl. It’s very old—an antique. I think her grandmother had given it to her, so it is extremely special to me. You have no idea how important this is to me.”

  Ziggy looked at it again. “Really? What is it?”

  “It’s a brooch—you know—a decorative pin, at least part of it. We had a formal NASA event here last night—that’s why I’m here in Huntsville—and I wore my grandmother’s pin on my dress because it was pretty, and unusual, and it matched my outfit. I didn’t discover until I got back to the hotel that the stone had fallen out. I was really upset when I thought I’d lost it.”

  “I’m glad I found it for you,” Ziggy said, “but I really wanted it to be from another planet.” He sounded disappointed.

  Ms. Washington looked at him with a twinkle in her eye. “Of course, I have no idea of what really happened, but the story in our family is that my great-great grandmother discovered the stone in a cornfield, and that when she picked it up, it was glowing.”

  “Wow! So it’s possible that it came from Mars?” Ziggy said. “Isn’t it possible that early Martian explorers came here a long time ago and left it by mistake?”

  “I’m going to let you believe that, Ziggy, because dreams are what will get you into space. If you’re right, then you’ll have something to talk about when Captain Ziggy is the first human to make contact with beings from another world.”

  “I know you’re just saying that to make a kid not feel stupid, but I’m not going to forget, mon. When I am an astronaut, I will be sure to ask them about the stone they left behind!” Ziggy replied with a grin.

  THE NEXT MORNING, AFTER CLEANING UP THE Habitat, packing their dirty clothes, and marching down to breakfast for the last time, the team got ready for their graduation from Space Camp.

  “It’s been quite a ride,” Neil said.

  Alan, who always seemed to speak after his brother, nodded in agreement. “It was really cool getting to know you guys,” he said to Ziggy, Rashawn, Rico, and Jerome.

  “Yeah, man. Same here,” Rashawn added with feeling.

  “What did you say the name of your club was?” Cubby asked.

  “The Black Dinosaurs club,” Jerome replied. “We have a clubhouse back home and passwords and everything.”

  “Cool!” Cubby said.

  “You got girls in your club?” Jessica asked.

  “Not yet. You want to be the first female member?” Rico asked her with a grin.

  “No way!” she told him. “But we might start our own club when we get home.”

  “What kind of stuff does your club do?” Amy asked. “Good deeds and stuff?”

  Rico scratched his head. “I don’t think we ever came across a good deed we could do.”

  “We’d do good deeds if we could f
ind any, mon!” Ziggy added. “But we don’t live in a book. Our neighborhood is probably a lot like yours—pretty boring.”

  “We did once dig for treasure, though,” Rashawn reminded his friends.

  “But we found a box of bones, not gold,” Rico said.

  “Most kids who dig for treasure only find dirt!” Jessica said. “You’re lucky.”

  “We also got trapped in a tunnel under our school once, and then we got lost in the woods on a campout,” Jerome told the others. “Both times we got rescued just in time, and once we got our picture in the newspaper!”

  “Awesome,” Nicolina said quietly.

  “The Black Dinosaurs is a really cool club, mon!” Ziggy said with pride. “Sometimes we solve mysteries and sometimes we just eat pizza in our clubhouse. Either way, we have fun!”

  “This trip to Space Camp was sort of a Black Dinosaurs adventure too. Rico’s dad drove us here,” Rashawn explained.

  Just as he said that, Rico’s father, looking rested and relaxed, joined them at the table in the cafeteria. “Hey, Dad!” Rico cried out with pleasure. “Want to meet Team America?”

  Rico introduced Samantha, then Cubby, Neil, and Alan, as well as the girls. “We had a great time, Dad! We tested the simulators, went on a mission, and learned more stuff than I ever wanted to know about space!”

  His father laughed.

  “And we learned how astronauts go to the bathroom, mon!” Ziggy shouted loud enough for the whole cafeteria to hear. Everyone seemed to stop talking as they looked over to where they were sitting. Ziggy continued, a little quieter, “And we got to meet an astronaut!”

  “Really? Who?”

  “Denise Washington!” Rico replied excitedly. “She’s cool!”

  Rico’s dad smiled. “I’m really impressed. All of you look a couple of months older, not a couple of days. You really seemed to have matured a little.”

  “Even Ziggy?” Rico teased.

  “Especially Ziggy!”

  Ziggy shook his head, flinging his braids, and took his tray back to the disposal area. There, tossing her breakfast trash into the wastebasket, stood Astronaut Washington. She wore the light blue one-piece jumpsuit that the astronauts wore in the pictures he saw on television. He gulped. “Good morning,” Ziggy said, quieter than usual.

  “Good morning, Ziggy,” she replied pleasantly. “Are you ready for graduation?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” he replied. “But I kinda hate to go home.”

  “I understand exactly how you feel,” she told him. “But you can always come back, you know.”

  “I’m glad I got to meet a real astronaut,” Ziggy said. “And I’m glad she was a smart, pretty black lady,” he admitted shyly.

  She laughed heartily. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me, Ziggy! I’ll never forget you, that’s for sure.”

  “Will you think about me when you go up in space?” He hopped from one foot to the other, a little nervous.

  “As a matter of fact, I fixed my grandmother’s brooch last night, and it is one of the few personal things I intend to take with me. Without you, it might have been lost forever. So, absolutely, I will think of you when I launch into space!”

  “Cool, mon!” Ziggy said with a grin.

  “I have to hurry now,” she told him. “I have some official duties to attend to.” She left the cafeteria, and Ziggy headed back to Team America.

  “Is everyone ready to head over to graduation?” Samantha asked. “Where’s Ziggy?” She counted the group and frowned.

  “Here I am, mon!” Ziggy cried. “I was talking to Astronaut Washington.”

  “Where?” Cubby asked. “I don’t see her.”

  “I wanted to introduce her to you, Dad,” Rico said.

  “She said she had something official to do, mon,” Ziggy told them.

  Samantha looked disappointed. “Sorry you missed her, Mr. Roman. I think Team America learned quite a bit from her.” She gathered up her bag and clipboard and told the group, “Let’s go, Team America. Time for graduation.”

  The team marched over to the auditorium and waited in line with the other teams that had been at Space Camp that week: Team Enterprise, Team Discovery, and many others. Finally, when their name was called, Team America marched in proudly, heads held high, large smiles of accomplishment on their faces. Each name was called and each member of the team received flight “wings” and a certificate of graduation. Parents snapped pictures from the back of the room.

  After the welcomes and the speeches and lots of applause, the camp director said, “I have a special guest to introduce to you. Please welcome Astronaut Denise Washington!”

  Everyone in the auditorium cheered and applauded, especially Team America.

  Rico turned and saw his father, who was sitting in the back with the rest of the parents. “I told you!” he mouthed.

  His father nodded and grinned.

  Ms. Washington walked to the speakers’ stand and smiled at the group. “Space. The final frontier. I sound like the start of an old TV show, don’t I? But there is so much out there to explore and discover that it will take a thousand lifetimes to learn it all. Our knowledge of space is so vast right now, compared to what the cavemen knew, for example. But what we still have to learn makes us feel like specks in a bottomless ocean. I want all of you to be thirsty for knowledge, eager to question, and willing to explore all possibilities. Now that you are Space Camp graduates, all of you have that potential.”

  Everyone applauded. She paused and looked at her notes. “I had the opportunity to meet one of the teams who just graduated—Team America,” she continued.

  Ziggy and his friends exchanged self-conscious smiles.

  “Although we focus on the team here rather than the individual, there is one young man I would like to thank personally.”

  Ziggy felt a little nervous excitement starting to grow in his stomach.

  “This young man, who embodies the spirit of curiosity, sometimes to the extreme”—she smiled and looked into the audience—“this young man found a piece of jewelry that I had lost. It had great personal importance to me, and I want to thank him personally. Ziggy Colwin, will you come to the stage, please?”

  Team America exploded in cheers of joy as Ziggy made his way to the front, grinning from ear to ear.

  As he climbed on to the stage, Ms. Washington continued. “Of course, Ziggy thought it was an artifact from outer space—actually, he thought lots of things here were the work of space aliens—but that’s the spirit we try to encourage here.”

  Everyone laughed a little.

  “Ziggy,” she said as he stood next to her. His braids seemed to be in motion as he looked around, shaking a little. “I wish to give you this special award.”

  From the podium she took a medallion that hung on a red-, white-, and blue-striped ribbon and placed it around his neck. Ziggy, suddenly shy, whispered his thanks.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, please recognize Ziggy Colwin, future astronaut and space explorer, who now wears the title of ‘Captain of Creativity’!”

  Ziggy bowed three or four times, spun around twice, then bowed again. The audience roared and laughed and clapped. Team America hooted and cheered until Ms. Washington said, “Okay, Ziggy, you can sit down now!”

  Ziggy, all grins and nervous energy, thanked her once more and bounded from the stage. “Don’t ever doubt the captain, mon!” he whispered to his friends as he sat back down. They gave him high fives, and everyone had to look at the medallion and exclaim over it.

  Finally all the teams were dismissed, and Space Camp was officially over. Ziggy and the rest of the Black Dinosaurs shook hands with Alan and Neil and Cubby, as well as the three girls. They promised to keep in touch by e-mail, but they all knew they probably wouldn’t. Everyone gave Samantha a final hug as parents gathered up their kids and headed to the cars to return to the real world.

  “I’ll never forget Team America,” she told them with feeling. They waved and h
eaded to the parking lot.

  “So, was it worth it?” Rico’s father asked as he started up the car.

  “Couldn’t have been better, mon!” Ziggy said, sighing contentedly as he snuggled into his pillow in the corner of the backseat. He touched the medallion around his neck and smiled to himself.

  “Wait till we get back to school and tell the rest of the kids about this!” Rico said.

  “This was better than getting to level ninety-nine on the Mega Mighty Martian Blasters video game, mon!” Ziggy said.

  “Did you find any space creatures like you talked about before you left?” Rico’s dad asked.

  The four friends looked at each other and grinned. “Well, Ziggy found some suspicious-looking bananas,” Rashawn began. He was trying to hold back a laugh.

  “And he discovered some squirrels that might have been from Mars—we didn’t look real close,” Jerome added, almost bursting into laughter.

  “And we found a space vehicle that maybe some space creatures might have used to hide in,” Rico continued, giggling. “But they’d have to eat cement, because that’s what it was filled with!”

  The four friends laughed together as they told Mr. Roman about their adventures. “Actually, Ziggy did find out that Ms. Washington’s stone was over two hundred years old,” Rashawn said. “Maybe it really could have been left here by visitors from another planet.”

  “Maybe as a club we can check out some stuff about space invaders on the Internet or at the library when we get home,” Jerome suggested.

  “I guess there’s no way to really know for sure,” Rico said sensibly.

  “I know because I believe, mon. I still believe there’s something or someone out there,” Ziggy said as he gazed out the window toward the afternoon sky. “One day I’ll find out. You’ll see.”

  The four friends dozed as the car headed north, speeding back toward Cincinnati, where more adventures awaited the Black Dinosaurs.

  “THEY REALLY DO LOOK LIKE BEASTS, DON’T THEY, mon?” Ziggy said in quiet appreciation of the snorting machines across the street.