|
[Story] [Science]
Home is Where you Make it
Slumped on the couch like a baked potato, I sat
mesmerized watching the television. A loud knock
echoed in my ears. I slowly moved to the door and
opened it. Who could it be at this hour of the
night? A man in all black stood irritated at the
door moving from side to side. With a forced smile,
he said, " Urgent message for David Smith," and was
gone. I slowly walked back to the couch and decided
that nothing was too urgent to wait until the end
of I Love Lucy.
Six hours later I woke up and with a sigh,
rolled out of bed. I finally remembered what I had
forgotten the night before. I stumbled into my
parents room and handed the letter to my dad. He
glanced at it and smoothly tore the edges of the
envelope. He read it four or five times before he
placed it on his desk. All of a sudden, a stream of
tears flowed down his cheeks and all he could say
was, "How can this be? How can this be?" as if he
could not quite comprehend what he had just read.
"How can what be?" I questioned with fear in my
voice.
I didn't find out the information from the
letter until hours later. My parents gathered me
and my three year old sister, Meg, around the
dinner table. "Meg" my dad said, "Page, we have
some news to tell you." I had heard that line
before--my father worked for a company that mined
precious materials, we were always moving when they
found something new that they wanted him to take
out of some planet. That's why we were in Kailua,
there were rare petrified coconuts that he was
locating in layers of beach. When he said he had
news, it usually meant we were moving. "You know
the Planet Ooblekian", he continued, "well we'll be
moving there in the end of January--I need to work
on an ooblek extraction project." There must be a
mistake. But the more I tried to wake myself up
from this nightmare, the more real it became.
The days flew by like a seagull diving for its
prey. Before I knew it, it was the day of our
departure. I had tried so hard to convince my
parents to stay, but my dad, being as stubborn as a
donkey, went wherever he was needed for work. I
said goodbye to Danielle, Jen, and Chris, the best
friends anyone could have, and boarded the
spaceship with a heart as heavy as a boulder. My
sister, on the other hand, was as happy as a clown.
For her, this was another adventure.
The flight seemed to last forever and was one of
the saddest times of my childhood. I remembered all
the people I loved and cared about, and how I would
never see them again. My world had been turned
upside down and no one was there to flip it back
for me.
"Ten minutes to landing," the flight attendant
said flatly. To her, this was find and dandy, but
to me it was the beginning of a whole new life. I
glanced out the window, only to see things I had
only heard of before. The great green ocean of
Ooblek, speed boats and water skis instead of cars,
and even a school floating on the Ooblekian Ocean.
"Honey, Page?" "We're here," my Mom said
sweetly.
I stumbled out of my seat and walked off the
space shuttle. This place was so big and I was so
small. I felt like an ant in a giant maze. I had to
jog to keep up with the fierce pace my father had
set. Dodging in and out of strangely dressed
people, we caught the first float available. We
headed straight for our new home In the Ooblekian
Ocean.
I stepped off the float and looked in wonderment
at my new home. It was like nothing I had ever seen
before with weird looking plants and a front and
back yard of Ooblek instead of grass and flowers. I
wished I could just fall asleep and wake up with
everything the way it use to be back in Kailua.
The next few days before school started felt
like weeks, and I dreaded going to my new school.
The first day of school my Dad insisted on driving
me and Meg in our new boat. First he dropped Meg
off at day care and we waved goodbye in the boat. I
was next and I was filled with fear and excitement.
We reached the school and I walked into my
class.
Over the next couple of weeks, I actually
managed to make a bunch of friends and met a girl
names Sassy who was very enthusiastic and a blast
to be around. I faced some problems at first, but
the longer I stayed on Planet Ooblekian, the more
things seemed to come together for me. All I needed
was to give this place some time and be open to new
things.
One night, my Dad came home from worked and
gathered me, my Mom and Meg around the dinner
table. "I have some important news," he says. "It
seems that my job has reopened back in Hawaii and
my boss is giving me the option to return to Hawaii
with my family, or to stay here." "I have decided,"
he paused, "that I'm going to leave it up to Page
to decide." I gasped. It was up to me? Such an
important decision and my parents were letting me
decide.
All I had wanted since I got here was to return
back to Earth and now that I had the choice, I
wasn't so sure. Everything was so different here,
yet I had grown to love it. It didn't take me long
to realize that this was also a place I loved and
cherished dearly I looked up at my parents and said
with confidence, " I'm happy right here and I'm
willing to make this my home if you are." "What
ever you say," my Mom replied with a smile bright
enough to light up the room. She leaned over and
gave me a big hug.
[Animation]
|
