Wonderful Things

Chapter Eleven

It was now summer in the Blackberry Forest. The days were warm, and the leaves were fully covering the trees. Chips and Charley had forgotten how green the forest could be in the summer. They were amazed at the warmth and freshness of that color.

This was the morning William was coming back home from school for his summer vacation. Chips and Charley were waiting impatiently in front of William's house for his arrival. As they were waiting, William's mom gave them some fresh strawberries to eat.

The strawberries were so sweet and juicy. Summer brings such wonderful things!

It was almost noon when William and his dad arrived. William had a big smile on his face. He was happy to see his friends waiting for him. He hugged both of them. When his mom came out, he hopped over to her to give her a big kiss. She hugged him for a long time, and then she invited everyone inside for some lunch.

As they at a lunch of fruits and nuts, William began to talk about the many things he learned at school. He talked about the eclipse, the new comet, the stars, and many other things.

"The most exciting thing I learned," he said, "was that people have traveled to and even walked on the moon."

Chips and Charley immediately stopped eating and stared at Wiliam.

"People have walked on the moon! How did they get there?" Charley asked.

"Rockets. Rockets are like big airplanes that are powerful enough to escape the earth's gravity to fly to outerspace. They move extremely fast, and people can travel inside of them."

"Did the people talk about what the moon was like?" asked Chips.

"Were there bugs there?" Charley asked.

"Or rabbits?" added Chips.

"No, there is no life on the moon. There are just rocks and dirt and craters."

"It must have been very lonely there," William's mom commented."

"Yes, but they could see the earth. It looked like a beautiful ball with swirling colors of blue, green, and white."

"Oh my," said Charley. "Just imagine how that felt for the people to travel that far away. I thought I traveled far when I was blown out of the Blackberry Forest on a very windy day."

Everyone laughed. It was hard for them to imagine just how far away the moon really was.

"The people had to wear a special outfit because there is no air on the moon. A tank of their backs carried the oxygen for them. They also had to wear special boots, because there is very little gravity on the moon. Gravity is what holds us down to the earth and gives us weight. They weighed much less than they were used to when they were on the moon. As a matter of fact, in the rocket they had no weight, so they would float around. They had to have special training to learn how to do things when they were weightless."

Chips and Charley heads were spinning as they imagined traveling to the moon. William wanted them to talk about what they had been up to, but they did not have much to say. It seemed so uninteresting after what William told them.

William needed to take a nap after lunch, because he had come from so far that morning. Chips and Charley left after they helped put the dishes away. They promised to meet William later in the day.

As they hopped awy, Charley thought to himself, "There are so many wonderful things to learn about and explore! How lucky we are to have a friend like William to share with us the things he has learned."