Stuck on Earth Read online

  “I’m sorry!” I cried. I explained what I had done.

  We were both shivered-out and a little bit nervous. Neither of us thought my mistake was funny.

  Earth is as dark as a black hole, I thought.

  With a sigh, I got back on the path. Neb followed.

  After a few steps, my laser lamp flashed on the eyes of an animal. It let out a bark as Neb and I started screaming. I dropped my lamp, and we took off running again.

  Neb and I ran until we were out of breath. Then we fell to the ground, gasping for air. Lying in the dark, I felt like I was about to go lunar.

  “Are you all right, Neb?” I asked in a shaky voice.

  We were barely into our adventure and were already in global meltdown.

  “I think so,” she said, breathing hard. “What do we do now?”

  I sat up and looked around. We were lost. We had no light. And it was as dark as deep space.

  Then something in the distance caught my eye. “Look, Neb!” I cried, pointing.

  Neb sat up.

  There was a barn at the end of a field. And there was a light on inside it. It was the only light in a world of darkness.

  “Maybe there’s someone in there who can help us,” I said, and jumped to my feet.

  4

  BENNY GONZALEZ

  I raced through the dark field. Nebula followed close behind me.

  When we got to the barn door, I slowly pushed it open and peered inside, where I saw a young boy brushing a horse.

  When the boy saw us, he put down his brush.

  “I know you,” he said. “You’re from the space station. You visited my school.”

  Neb and I remembered him, too. His name was Benny Gonzalez. He had led our class through Lincoln School during our tour.

  “It’s stellar to see you again!” I said, shaking his hand.

  Benny studied us for a moment. I knew he was wondering what we were doing in his barn.

  Then he asked, “Why aren’t you back at the Shady Pines Inn?”

  “We got lost on the way to the train station,” I said.

  “You must have turned the wrong way,” he said. “The station’s just a mile past Lincoln Elementary on the left.”

  Benny told us he’d been sleeping. But something had spooked his horse, so he’d gotten up, gotten dressed, and come to the barn to calm it down.

  Then he sort of squinted at both of us. I suppose he had just figured out who had spooked his horse.

  But he didn’t seem to mind. With a smile, he said, “Why don’t I take you to the train station?”

  Neb and I were happy to let him. We followed him out of the barn.

  There were eyes everywhere in the dark. I knew they were animals. But to me they looked like Blotozoid Zombies. I tried not to look and kept my eyes focused on Benny instead.

  He took us along the same path back toward town. This time, however, Neb and I weren’t inked-out. We felt safe with this boy from Earth.

  Benny led us across a large bog. He said it was a shortcut to town. But the ground was wet and muddy.

  Our space station shoes were made for metal floors. They were not made for wet grass and mud.

  Pwuck, pwuck, they sounded as Neb and I struggled with every step.

  I didn’t understand how anyone could live on this scorchy planet. It was muddy. It was dark. It was downright spooky.

  When we finally saw the lights of town, I was so happy. Neb and I hurried toward the main street, and for a moment, Benny was following us.

  We turned left at the center of town and hurried past Lincoln Elementary. Before long, the train station came into view.

  Benny took us inside. There were very few people catching trains that night. It was late—very late!—and everyone was home sleeping.

  He asked where we were going, and we told him. Then he helped us check the schedule to Cleveland at the ticket window. There was a train leaving in one hour.

  “When are you coming back?” Benny asked.

  “Tomorrow morning,” I said. “Before ten.”

  We had to get back before Mr. Peres missed us!

  Benny thought for a moment as he studied the train schedule. Then he turned toward us.

  “Can I come, too?” he asked. “I’ve always wanted to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I heard it stays open all night.”

  Neb and I looked at each other in surprise. I knew what she was thinking. She was thinking it would be thermo to have this Earth boy along on our trip.

  5

  THE MYSTERY MAN

  “We’d love to have you come with us, Benny!” I told him. “But what about your parents? Won’t they miss you?”

  “My parents are in Mexico,” said Benny. “I live with my uncle.”

  Benny’s uncle was a farmer. The barn we had found Benny in was his uncle’s.

  “He leaves to work the fields before I get up in the morning,” said Benny. “He doesn’t come back until it’s dark.”

  Benny’s uncle wouldn’t miss him. We would be back from Cleveland long before he returned from the fields.

  Benny smiled and stepped up to the ticket counter.

  “Make that three tickets to Cleveland,” he said to the clerk.

  With our tickets in hand, Neb, Benny, and I waited for the train. Neb and I actually fell asleep on a bench, but Benny woke us up just as the train was about to leave.

  We found three seats in front of a man who was sitting alone. As I sat down, I smiled at him. He did not smile back.

  I thought that was inky. But as the train began to pull out of the station, I forgot about him.

  A few minutes later, we were flying through the countryside at lightning speed.

  “I can’t look out the window!” I cried to Benny, covering my eyes. “It makes me dizzy!”

  Benny laughed at me. He must have thought I was the most lunar girl in the universe!

  I looked at my watch. It was way, way past midnight. Almost four in the morning! Neb and I had left the Shady Pines Inn hours ago!

  No wonder I’m hungry, I thought as I reached into my backpack for something to eat. I was glad I had packed the ham sandwiches from our trip to the farm.

  Nebula had fallen asleep. So Benny and I hungrily ate our sandwiches. When we were finished eating, we were both wide awake and ready to talk.

  “Why are you going to Cleveland, anyway?” Benny asked me.

  I had been so busy trying to get to the train station that I had almost forgotten why we were going. Now that we were on our way, I was quasar with excitement!

  “I invented a glue,” I told Benny, “that will make anything stick to anything!”

  I reached into my backpack and pulled out my jar of Galaxy Glue. Then I handed it to Benny.

  “The only reason it doesn’t stick to the jar is because the inside of the jar is coated with a nonstick Flooton plastic,” I explained.

  Benny shook my jar of glue and turned it over and over in his hands.

  “I won a science fair back home on the space station,” I said. “We’re going to Cleveland so I can enter my glue in the Thirty-Fourth Annual World Science Fair. The prize is fifty thousand frackles!”

  Benny looked up at me. His eyes were lit up like solar flares. I was happy to see how excited he was.

  “That’s so thermo!” he cried. “Do you think you can win?”

  I was certain I could win. No one had ever been able to stick Zarkon metal to Calzon glass before.

  “I think I have a very good chance,” I told him.

  Benny handed me back my jar of glue. As I slipped it into my backpack, I noticed that the man behind me was leaning forward.

  He had been listening to every word I said!

  I decided to turn around and say hello. But when I did, he just turned away.

  Is this how Earth adults act? I wondered.

  In the name of Neptune, I did not know.

  6

  BROKEN DREAMS

  I was so shivered-out by the
inky man behind me that I didn’t talk the rest of the two-hour trip. Benny did not understand why I was so quiet. But if I tried to explain, the man would hear me.

  Benny soon got tired and fell asleep. Neb was still asleep, so I had no one to talk to.

  I couldn’t look out the window without getting dizzy. And the man behind me was staring at me. At least, I thought I could feel his eyes on the back of my neck.

  I was never so happy to see the sun when it finally appeared in the sky. It was rising over a huge lake. I had never seen so much water in one place in all my life.

  I woke up Nebula and Benny.

  “Look at that!” I said to them, pointing out at the water.

  “That’s Lake Erie,” said Benny, yawning, not the least bit surprised.

  I had almost forgotten this was his planet.

  “It’s one of the five Great Lakes,” he said.

  I couldn’t believe there were five of them like this one. No wonder they called them the Great Lakes. They were cosmic.

  Just then, the train turned south, and a large city came into view. I tried to look at it more closely, but the train was moving too fast.

  “Next stop, Cleveland, Ohio!” shouted the conductor.

  “We’re here!” I cried.

  Nebula and I gathered up our backpacks as the train pulled into the station. I looked out the window. It was six o’clock in the morning, and the station was already bustling with people.

  I took one last look at the inky man behind us and gave him a scorchy stare. Then I hurried off after my friends.

  We marched straight to the information counter and got directions to the science fair. It was close enough that we could walk. So we hiked out of the station.

  Poor Neb hadn’t eaten anything all night. I gave her a ham sandwich. She gobbled it right up.

  Cleveland was stellar! There were trains and cars and boats and planes. I was definitely a city girl, I decided. Cities were much more like space stations than country towns were.

  When we got to the science fair, it was just opening its doors for the day. I was so excited, I thought I’d go lunar.

  There was a huge banner on the side of the science center. It read:

  “This is it!” I shouted.

  It was a dream come true. I couldn’t believe I had made it all the way from Space Station 9 to Cleveland, Ohio! It was stellar beyond belief!

  Then, all of a sudden, I felt someone tugging on my backpack! I spun around to look.

  “Ceedus-Lupeedus!” I cried.

  It was the inky man from the train!

  “He’s after my glue!” I shouted, holding on to my backpack with all my might. I wasn’t going to let go for all the stardust in the galaxy.

  When he heard me scream, Benny turned and raced toward us. The man panicked and let go of my backpack. It plunked down to the ground in front of me.

  I heard the sound of breaking glass. Galaxy Glue came oozing out of my backpack. It spread on the pavement all around my feet.

  I looked up at Nebula.

  “My glue!” I cried.

  7

  A CLUE TO THE GLUE

  Nebula reached for the broken jar of glue. I knew she wanted to help me. But I had to stop her.

  “Don’t touch the glue!” I shouted.

  Nebula looked up at me in confusion.

  “You’ll get stuck, Neb!” I told her.

  As I said that, I looked down at my feet. The glue had formed a puddle around me. I tried to pick up my space shoes. But they would not budge.

  The glue had seeped through my shoes and socks, which meant…

  My feet were glued to my socks. My socks were glued to my shoes. And my shoes were glued to the ground!

  “That was all the glue I had!” I said as tears welled up in my eyes. I would no longer be able to enter the science fair.

  Neb and I stood in silence. We did not know what to do. We were both shivered-out beyond belief.

  Then, as if things couldn’t get any scorchier, Benny ran off. He left us when we needed him most!

  “All Earth people are inky!” I said.

  Nebula threw her arms around me, and we started to cry.

  Our trip to Earth was a total disaster!

  “Look!” shouted Nebula suddenly.

  I turned my head. To my surprise, Benny was walking toward us. With him was a tall, thin man with glasses.

  “I’d like you to meet Albert Geezle,” said Benny when they reached us. “Mr. Geezle is the great-grandson of the famous inventor Alfred Geezle. He is also the man in charge of the science fair.”

  I could not believe my ears! Alfred Geezle was my hero. Next to the singer Proto Zoa and my dad, he was the most thermo man in the universe.

  “It is stellar to meet you,” I said, going quasar with excitement.

  Mr. Geezle had a kind face. I could tell that he wanted to help me. So I quickly told him what had happened. When I was finished, he shook his head.

  “That man wanted to steal your glue and enter it in my science fair!” he said angrily.

  I was happy that Mr. Geezle was flared-up about the inky man. But at this point, I was more worried about my glue.

  “What should I do now?” I asked him.

  Mr. Geezle looked down at the glue around my feet. It had dried and hardened. When he bent down to touch it, I did not stop him.

  “Is there anything special about this glue I should know?” he asked me, knocking on it with his knuckles.

  I did not want to give away my glue’s secret ingredient. But I knew that I had to tell him if I wanted him to help me.

  “Yes, sir,” I said. “It has whambama in it.”

  Mr. Geezle looked up at me. He seemed very surprised.

  “Wait here,” he said as he hurried off toward the science center.

  A short time later, Mr. Geezle returned with a small group of men and women.

  “These are some of the best scientists on Earth,” he explained to me. “They are here for the Thirty-Fourth Annual World Science Fair. They may be able to help us.”

  The scientists introduced themselves to me. They were very interested in my glue. They chipped off samples of it and asked me questions. They were looking for any clues that might help them.

  “What is whambama?” they wanted to know.

  This was the first time I realized they did not grow whambama on Earth. It was probably too hot or cold … or too wet or dry.

  The space station must be the only place whambama is grown, I thought.

  “It’s a berry-like fruit,” I explained. “It’s made from bananas, pineapples, and kiwi.”

  “Hmmm,” they all muttered, deep in thought.

  I wondered what they were thinking, but they didn’t say a word. They didn’t even talk to each other.

  They finished chipping. Then they took their samples and left just as quickly as they had come.

  I looked over at Mr. Geezle. He seemed more worried than ever.

  “We can only hope that the scientists come up with something to dissolve your glue, Zenon,” he said, “or you may be stuck here for a very long time.”

  8

  THE GLUE’S IN THE NEWS

  Mr. Geezle excused himself. Then he followed the scientists back into the science center.

  He had inked me out cosmically. I didn’t want to stay stuck in Cleveland. My parents would miss me. I had school to attend. And what about my friends?

  My stellar plans had come unglued.

  I just wished my feet would.

  Nebula began to pace in front of me. She was worried about Mr. Peres. Our class would be leaving for Washington, D.C., in a few hours—and we would not be there to join them.

  “Maybe I’d better call him,” said Neb, coming to a stop in front of me.

  I hated to think of telling Mr. Peres what I had done. But I knew Nebula was right.

  “Tell him that some of the best scientists on Earth are working on it,” I said as she turned to go.

 
Nebula ran off toward the science center to use the phones. I was left alone with Benny.

  “Don’t worry,” he said, putting his arm around me. “You’ll be back home on Space Station 9 before you know it.”

  I was deep in thought about home when, to my surprise, Mr. Geezle came running back toward us. He had a quasar smile on his face.

  “I have great news!” he cried.

  I was sure the scientists had found a solution to my problem. But I was wrong.

  “We caught the man who tried to steal your glue,” said Mr. Geezle. “He was stuck in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame! He must have stepped in some of your glue when the jar broke.”

  I was happy that the inky man was caught. But it did not solve my problem.

  Then, all of a sudden, a bright light flashed in my face.

  I looked up to see a woman standing in front of me. To her side was a man holding a camera. It was pointed right at me.

  “I’m a reporter from WKYC,” the woman said. She pushed a microphone in front of my face. “May I ask you some questions?”

  I had nothing else to do, and certainly nowhere to go. So I agreed to talk to her.

  “Tell me about your Galaxy Glue,” she said.

  I was surprised that she knew about my glue. I hadn’t told anyone but Mr. Geezle and the scientists. News traveled fast on Earth. Soon the whole planet would know.

  I explained what Galaxy Glue was and what it could do. I told her how it could make Zarkon metal stick to Calzon glass.

  I thought I had told her everything she needed to know. Then she scorched me out with her next question.

  “Why did you use whambama?” she asked.

  Whambama was my secret ingredient! No one was supposed to know about it but Mr. Geezle and the scientists!

  What a bunch of blabberbabbles! I thought.