Astrotwins — Project Blastoff

by Mark Kelly

  Mark and Scott looked at one another. The only letters they ever wrote were birthday and Christmas thank-you notes.

  “How long would a letter take to get to Greenwood Lake?” Mark asked.

  “If you mail it Monday morning, it will be there on Tuesday,” Dad said. “I can get the address from your grandfather.”

  “But you’ll have to phone him to get it!” Mark said. “So in that case, why can’t we just—”

  “Because I have to call Grandpa anyway,” Dad said. “And because I’m the one who pays the phone bill.”

  Mom looked up from her spaghetti. “Excuse me?”

  “Correction,” Dad said. “Your mom and I pay the phone bill. And all the other bills, too.”

  After dinner, Scott and Mark were watching Emergency!, one of their favorite shows, when Dad came into the living room and handed them a slip of paper with Jenny O’Malley’s address on it. After the show was over, Scott copied the list they had made that morning onto a fresh sheet of yellow legal paper, and Mark wrote the letter:

  Dear Egg, also known as Egghead, also known as Jenny,

  My brother and I think you might be able to help us with a project. If you’re interested, I mean. We think you might be helpful because, like you said, you are an egghead. We are not. Anyway, what it is is building a spaceship like a Mercury spacecraft that orbits Earth one time. We think it could blast off from somewhere around our grandpa’s house and splash down in the lake.

  We could work on it next time we visit Grandpa. We hope next week. Is next week okay? Our friend Barry is going to help, too. He is also an egghead.

  Scott wrote the list of stuff we think we will need. I guess there might be more, too. It is in the envelope with this letter.

  There is one more thing. We don’t think we should tell any grown-ups about it. Grown-ups might think it is a bad idea. However, Grandpa doesn’t count. He thought of it in the first place.

  Do you want to work on this project with us?

  Yours truly,

  Mark Kelly

  Scott had made some suggestions while Mark was writing, and now he read the letter over, frowned, and suggested a PS, which Mark added:

  P.S.—It is okay if you don’t want to.

  Mom mailed the letter on her way to work on Monday morning.

  On Tuesday they checked the mailbox in front of their house, even though Mom and Dad both told them it was physically impossible for Egg to have answered that fast. Then, on Wednesday, they checked again and sure enough, there was a letter addressed to Mark and Scott Kelly!

  Egg’s handwriting was as neat as Scott’s, but bigger and rounder. They were glad she hadn’t used pink ink or smelly stationery. It was just a plain letter in blue ink on lined paper.

  Dear Mark and Scott,

  I would like to help you with the project. If you can come to Greenwood Lake next Wednesday and stay a few days, that would be good. We can go to the library to do research.

  I understand about not telling grown-ups. But I have a question. After the project is all done, would it be okay if I submitted it for the annual school science fair? In my grade the same kid, Steve Peluso, gets a blue ribbon every single year, and I am sick of it. If our spaceship works, I think I, for once, might beat him.

  Sincerely,

  Jenny O’Malley (also known as Egg)

  P.S.—We need a name for the project. Here is my suggestion: Project Blastoff.

  “Project Blastoff,” Mark repeated. “I like it!”

  Scott agreed. “And it’s okay if she wants to enter it in the science fair after we’ve already been to space.”

  Mark nodded. “Because by then, no grown-up can stop us!”

  CHAPTER 10

  * * *

  The following Wednesday morning, Mom drove Mark, Scott, and Barry to Greenwood Lake. The car had barely come to rest in Grandpa’s driveway when the car doors burst open and the boys piled out and ran up the walk, shoving each other and laughing.

  “Nice to see you boys so enthused,” Mom said as she followed them into the empty house. Grandpa’s car was outside, so they knew he was around somewhere.

  “We’ve got big plans for our visit,” Mark told their mom.

  “Something to do with that girl named Egg—the one you wrote to?” Mom asked.

  Scott was afraid Mark wouldn’t be able to resist bragging about the project, so he punched him.

  “Ow! What was that for?” Mark rubbed his arm. “I’m not gonna say anything.”

  “Secrets, huh?” Mom said. The three boys climbed the ladder to Twin Territory and dumped their duffel bags.

  “Not secrets, exactly,” Scott said.

  “A project,” Mark said.

  In the summer, it was always hot in the loft, so Scott turned on the fan, which kicked up a whirlwind of dust. Mom had followed them partway up the ladder and was looking over the top rung. “I see one project you can do—cleaning up in here.”

  “I knew it!” said Barry. “The chores are starting already.”

  “Don’t scare him, Mom,” said Scott.

  “Anyway, after lunch, Egg’s coming over and we’re going to the library,” said Mark.

  Mom closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m sorry. There must be something wrong with my ears. For a second I actually thought you said ‘library.’ ”

  “He did say ‘library,’ ” Mark said.

  Mom looked from one twin to the other, then finally at Barry. “What have you done to my sons?”

  Barry laughed. “Don’t blame me. I think it’s that girl named Egg.”

  “I am still getting used to that idea—a girl named Egg,” Mom said.

  Scott said, “Egg explained we have to go to the library because of, uh . . . the stuff we’re doing.”

  “But it’s one time only.” Mark gripped the wooden railing at the edge of the loft, swung himself over, and dropped to the floor—thump—the preferred method of leaving Twin Territory.

  Scott was right behind him—thump. “We promise it will never happen again.”

  Barry looked doubtfully over the edge. “Do I have to jump?”

  “No, but if you don’t, Mark will make fun of you,” Scott said.

  Barry sighed. “Very well.” He turned, grabbed the railing, closed his eyes and jumped—thuh-bump.

  Mom was climbing down the ladder when the front door swung open. “Welcome, welcome!” Grandpa came in carrying a paper bag filled with bell peppers from the garden. “Good to see you. Anybody hungry? I’ve got peanut butter.”

  “With peppers?” Mom said.

  “Peanut butter goes with everything,” Grandpa said.

  Mark and Scott introduced Grandpa to Barry. Then sandwiches were made, and they all sat down at the table for lunch.

  Mom and Grandpa pronounced peanut butter and bell pepper sandwiches a culinary delight, but the three boys ate their peppers on the side.

  When lunch was over, Mom gave each twin a hug, which each twin tried to wiggle out of. Then she squeezed Barry’s shoulder, said good-bye to Grandpa, and left to drive back to West Orange.

  “Is Jenny coming over to work on the project?” Grandpa asked when Mom was gone.

  Mark said, “We call her ‘Egg.’ ”

  “And I call her Jenny,” Grandpa said.

  Scott said, “We’re going to the library—and you don’t need to make fun of us, because Mom already did.”

  “I would never make fun of you for going to the library!” Grandpa said. “It’s a repository of all human knowledge.”

  “Yeah, that’s the problem,” said Mark. “But we still have to go, because we need to do research before we start building.”

  * * *

  Egg’s mom drove up to the house a few minutes later, and Egg jumped out of the car with a grin on her face. Mark and Scott were glad to see her, too. Even though they hadn’t known her long, she seemed like an old friend.

  “Hi, Mr. Kelly! Hi, guys!” Egg greeted them. “And you must be Barry. Gre
at to meet you.”

  “Same,” said Barry.

  Egg’s mom, Mrs. O’Malley, rolled down the driver’s-side window. “I hope you don’t mind if I don’t get out of the car, Joe. I’ve got a meeting later, and I need to move along. Are you kids ready?”

  “Do we need to bring anything?” Mark asked.

  “I’ve got it covered,” Egg said.

  The library was in the town of West Milford, a fifteen-minute drive from Grandpa’s house. It was quiet in the car. The boys were bursting to talk about the project, but they couldn’t say anything in front of Egg’s mom.

  “Are you having a good summer?” Mrs. O’Malley asked.

  “Yes, ma’am,” said Mark. Scott nodded.

  “What have you been doing since I last saw you?” Mrs. O’Malley asked.

  “Nothing much,” said Mark. Scott shrugged.

  “Jenny’s been very busy,” Mrs. O’Malley said.

  “They call me ‘Egg,’ ” Egg explained to her mom. “It’s short for ‘egghead.’ They think I’m a brain.”

  Mrs. O’Malley laughed. “I hope that’s a good thing.”

  Scott said, “Barry’s kind of a brain, too.”

  “No, I’m not,” Barry said.

  “So you have something in common,” Mark said.

  “No, we don’t,” Barry said.

  Laughing, Mrs. O’Malley turned the car into a parking lot by a brick building with a flag in front. “I’ll meet you here in a couple of hours,” she said.

  A couple of hours? Mark and Scott looked at each other. In their minds, a visit to the library meant pulling one or two books off the shelf. What could possibly take such a long time?

  “Sounds good.” Egg climbed out of the car with an empty canvas book bag over her shoulder. The boys were right behind her.

  But wait.

  At the bottom of the steps that led to the library’s entrance stood another kid, and now Egg was saying hello to him like they’d planned to meet all along. Scott and Mark looked at each other. Who the heck was this?

  CHAPTER 11

  * * *

  The boy was named Howard Chin. He was going into seventh grade at Egg’s school. Scott, Mark, and Barry learned all this in about ten seconds. What they didn’t learn was what he was doing there.

  Howard’s clothes looked normal enough—jeans and a T-shirt—but he didn’t smile and he had something weird clipped to his belt: a long orange case.

  “What the heck is that supposed to be?” Scott whispered to Barry as they walked up the steps.

  “Slide rule,” Barry said.

  “What’s a slide rule?” Mark wanted to know.

  “It’s a special ruler you can do math calculations on,” Barry explained. “Howard must be a math nerd like me.”

  “We don’t need two math nerds,” said Scott.

  The library was about the size of a large house. It had scuffed beige linoleum floors and white walls. Just inside the entrance, a lone librarian stood behind a wooden checkout desk. She had been ink-stamping returned books, but when the kids walked in, she looked up. “Hello, Jenny! Did you already finish reading the books from last week? And who are your friends?”

  “I didn’t finish all of them yet.” Jenny introduced the boys and said, “Can you tell me where the physics books are?”

  “Oh dear. We’re not very long in physics,” the librarian said. “For that, you’d need a university library. But if it’s the basics you’re after, they’re in 530–539. That’s up the stairs in the row nearest the south wall.”

  “How about the encyclopedia?” Barry asked.

  “Good idea,” said Jenny, “and I know where that is.”

  On the library’s second floor, the five kids found several long tables with chairs around them, an orange vinyl sofa, and row after row of bookcases. Half a dozen grown-ups were sitting at the tables, reading, writing, or both. There were several people in the children’s section, which was in an alcove to the left of the stairs.

  Mark and Scott knew from school that 530–539 referred to numbers in the Dewey Decimal System, an organizing scheme that numbers every nonfiction book according to its subject. Since each row of bookcases was labeled with the numbers of the books it contained, it was easy to find what they wanted.

  “How about this one?” Egg pulled a book called Fundamentals of Modern Physics off the shelf.

  Mark nodded. “Looks great.”

  On a nearby shelf that held the 600s, mechanical engineering, Howard spotted another helpful-looking book, Theory of Flight.

  Scott looked at his brother, then at Egg. “Uh . . . can I ask a question?”

  Egg said, “Shoot—except we’re in a library, so you have to speak softly.”

  “Okay. Why do we need to know physics, anyway?”

  Howard snorted, then covered his mouth with his hand. “Sorry.”

  Mark and Scott had the same thought at the same time. Howard was tall but skinny. They could take him easy, and Barry would help. On the other hand, it probably wasn’t cool to pulverize somebody in a library.

  “One of the things physics explains is how things like spaceships move and what makes them move,” Egg answered. “So if we want to figure out how to make a rocket move upward and into orbit, then we have to understand some physics. There’s actually a lot we need to know, but we can start with Newton’s Three Laws of Motion.”

  “That’s Sir Isaac Newton,” said Mark.

  “Really?” said Scott. “I thought it was his younger brother, Fig.”

  Everybody laughed at that—even Howard.

  The boys took their books to an empty table. Then Egg brought over a volume of the encyclopedia. Everybody sat down. Egg pulled notebook paper and pens out of her bag and distributed them.

  “Okay, so we’ve all got our books and our paper and our pens,” she said.

  “Check, check, and check,” said Mark.

  “So we’re interested in Newton’s Laws. What if we all read up on them and talk about it later to make sure we understand. I mean”—all of a sudden, she looked embarrassed—“if that’s okay. I’m not trying to be the boss or anything.”

  Mark said, “Yeah, you are. But for now that’s okay. You brought the pens and paper.”

  After that, everybody read and took notes. The books were written for adults. The print was small, there were a ton of words on every page, and some of the words and ideas were tough to understand. But Mark and Scott really wanted Project Blastoff to work, so they read and reread till things started to make sense.

  “Can I say something?” Barry asked.

  Egg nodded.

  “My butt hurts,” Barry said. “These chairs are hard.”

  The guys all cracked up, and Egg rolled her eyes. “I guess we have been sitting for a while.”

  Mark looked at the clock on the wall and couldn’t believe it was almost four.

  “All the books except the encyclopedia circulate,” said Egg. “Let’s take them outside to talk so we don’t bother anybody.”

  Downstairs, Egg used her library card to check out the books. “Are you starting early for the big science fair, dear?” the librarian asked her.

  Egg hesitated and finally said, “Uh, maybe.”

  The librarian laughed. “Don’t worry. I won’t say a word to the Pelusos. What kind of project is it, if you don’t mind my asking?”

  Mark answered before Egg had a chance. “Secret,” he said.

  “Oh!” The librarian looked at him, then at Egg. “Well, just so you don’t blow anything up.”

  CHAPTER 12

  * * *

  On their way to the park, Jenny had a crazy idea. “Wouldn’t it be great if we could get all the information in the library at home? Maybe it could be transmitted like television,” she said. “Then we wouldn’t have to lug these heavy books around, or worry about not being able to keep an encyclopedia volume.”

  “It would be great if I had wings, too,” said Mark, “but that doesn’t mean it’s
gonna happen.”

  “Actually,” said Barry, “computer processors get smaller all the time. There’s something called Moore’s Law that predicts eventually they’ll be small enough so you could carry a computer in your pocket.”

  Howard nodded. “And the military has been experimenting with linking computers together with phone lines to form a giant database. If that database were made available to the public, anybody could see a library’s worth of information from anywhere.”

  “Ha!” said Scott. “That’s just science fiction talking. Hey—how about if we sit at that table?”

  The picnic table Scott pointed to was in the shade of an elm tree. The five kids arranged themselves on the benches. Egg took the big science and physics books she’d been carrying out of her book bag. “So after we’re done orbiting the Earth,” she said, “maybe we can work on creating a giant electronic library available to everyone. In the meantime, who wants to say what he found out about physics?”

  “Me,” said Mark.

  “There’s a surprise,” said Scott.

  Mark ignored him. “Sir Isaac Newton was born in England in 1642 and died in England in 1727. One day, while he was still alive, an apple fell on his head, and—”

  “The story of Newton and the apple is made up. It’s a myth,” Howard interrupted.

  Barry said, “Maybe not. And anyway, it’s a good story.”

  Mark gave Howard a dirty look. “Like I was saying, his bruised head made him think about why the apple fell, and all of a sudden he realized that large objects like the Earth pull other things to them, and that pull is caused by gravity.”

  “Small objects have gravity, too,” Howard said. “But how much they have is proportional to their mass, so massive objects like Earth have more.”

  Mark frowned. He didn’t like being corrected.

  Meanwhile, Scott said, “I thought we were talking about three laws.”

  “The first one is the law of inertia,” Mark said. “According to it, an object at rest will stay at rest until a force moves it.”