“OK! Well! You’re with me and Lucky now! 🙂 What do you suggest?”
“Well, umm, I was really hoping that we could find another planet that wasn’t so cold and icy as me. And wasn’t too hot either, like Mercury. And also wasn’t so stinky! So really not Venus. And Mars, well, that’s a pretty place but I think we should let it be its own place. Jupiter kind of scares me. I don’t know if I’d always want something looking at me. And Saturn is really pretty and so, so starry but I don’t know if I need something that glittery. And Uranus…”
“Uranus…”
“What??”
“Nothing! I just wanted to say it!”
Lucky and me and Pluto started giggling.
“Then Neptune is right out!” I said. “Who wants to live on a blueberry???”
“And Pluto, and Pluto,” Pluto said. She thought to herself for a second. “Is a pretty good planet,” she said. “Thanks for helping me, you guys. But I think I’m going to stay home! I just realized that I already do have a bunch of friends. All the other planets. And the Sun, which keeps me close to them.”
“When you step back, it’s beautiful, isn’t it?”
“OK, Lucky, I think I’m ready to go back.”
“Now hold on one second! Didn’t you say you guys were on a super-cool mission? Weren’t you going to find another planet? You still can!”
“But how can I do that?”
“I didn’t want to tell you guys earlier, but I think I actually heard the comets saying they found the perfect place. It isn’t too hot, or cold, or big or small. The air looks really, really good to breathe. I heard there might even be animals! I can tell you how to get there, if you’d like. Take I-25…”
“Goodbye, Pluto!”
“Good luck!” she shouted.”
“Grab on,” Lucky said. I grabbed onto his backpack. We rode the solar wind. We passed back by Pluto, by Neptune, by URANUS (we shouted), and back past Jupiter, and the asteroid field, and waved to our friends to Mars, and stopped just short of Venus.
Austin Diamond 