Life on Mars by Jennifer Brown
“Tripp and Priya?”
“Yes! That’s it, Tripp and Priya. They said they didn’t know Cash, but they knew you would want them there. They were such nice kids.”
My chest felt warm. “Yeah, they’re pretty cool,” I said. “The best friends ever.”
“Oh, and that reminds me. Some of Cash’s old buddies from NASA were there. One came all the way up from Florida. I hadn’t seen old Herb in years.”
“Wait. Herbert Swanschbaum? He came?”
“Yes, and oh, did he have some stories to tell about Cash. Really fun ones. Herb was so broken up about Cash’s death. He told me Cash was the best friend he ever had. Said he was so jealous of my brother.”
“Herbert was jealous of Cash?”
“Sure was. Herb said most of the guys wanted to be an astronaut for the status. They were out to be heroes. But Cash wanted to be an astronaut because he loved space and couldn’t think of anywhere else he’d rather be. He didn’t care about being anybody’s hero. He was in it for the love.”
I couldn’t help but think that somehow Cash had ended up a little bit of a hero anyway. At least to one kid who just wanted to believe in life on Mars. I wished I had gotten the chance to tell him that, and I hoped that he knew it anyway.
That night, I told Cassi and Dad I wanted to look at the stars alone.
Fall came and went, and so did Halloween and Thanksgiving and Christmas. I missed Missouri snowstorms and sledding down Killer Hill with Aunt Sarin. But soon it was spring. Which meant spring break was coming, along with Tripp and Priya, but first it meant that Mars was in opposition and a shiny repainted Huey was up and ready to roll.
Dad and I packed sleeping bags and jackets, just in case it got cold. We took water bottles and sodas and Mom made us a tub of cookies. We rolled Huey into the back of the SUV and took off for Lovell Canyon, which was perfect for seeing the sky. Even better than up on the hill behind the woods.
It took us a long time to find a spot where it would be just the two of us, and then to park, unload, and set up Huey. But in some ways it was the best time of my life, laughing and sharing stories with Dad, the excitement of firing up new and improved Huey for the first time since Cash died. Now that Dad didn’t work in an observatory anymore, he seemed to like space a lot better. He told me that was because his hobby and his job were two separate things again.
We rolled out our sleeping bags and hung our binoculars around our necks.
“You ready?” Dad asked as I poised over the on/off switch on the spotlight.
And suddenly I was nervous. Something about the air felt … charged somehow. Like something big could happen, and if I wasn’t paying attention, I would miss it. I had never done this without Cash, and I wasn’t sure what kind of feelings would come up when I pushed that button. I swallowed, licked my lips, nodded. “Yeah. I’m ready.”
“Go for it,” Dad said, turning and training his binoculars in the direction of Mars.
I reached down and flipped the switch.
Four dots. Another dot. Dot-dash-dot-dot, twice. Three dashes.
HELLO
I put my binoculars to my eyes and squinted around the bat butt until the black edges went away and all I was looking at was the distant red planet. Dad and I were still as statues, barely breathing.
And then Dad gasped. “Did you see that? Did you see, Arty?”
I held my breath, afraid to blink. I had seen it. A brief flash of light blinking over the planet. “Was that …?” I started, but then it happened again. And again. And again. Dots and dashes.
“What does that mean, do you think?” Dad asked, lowering his binoculars. I lowered mine as well, the fountain burbling happily beneath my eyelids again.
“It’s Morse code,” I said.
“What’s it saying?”
I sat down heavily on the ground, my whole body welling up with so much possibility I felt like I could run a marathon and solve calculus puzzles and cook a turkey dinner all at the same time.
“Kid, you keep dreaming, and I’ll promise you one thing. If there is life out there somewhere, I will send you a sign.”
“You okay, Arty?” Dad asked. “You look funny. What did it say?”
“It said, ‘HI HUEY.’ ” I turned my face up to the sky and smiled.
Fun Facts About Mars
Hi, again! Arty here. Thought you got rid of me, didn’t you? Wait—don’t turn the page yet! I promise this won’t take long. Since this story is called Life on Mars, I figured you should know a thing or two about the fourth planet from the sun so you don’t get burned when asked about it.
* Mars was named after the Roman god of war because of its bloodred color. Which is kind of gross. And also wrong. It turns out Mars isn’t red because of blood. It’s red because of all the iron rusting in its soil.
* Mars’s two moons, Phobos and Deimos, might actually be captured asteroids and look like potatoes. I think it would have been cool to name them Fries and Tots.
* Mars’s version of the Grand Canyon is a huge canyon called Valles Marineris, which is about the length of the entire United States and is four miles deep. Yet I am convinced that Tripp wouldn’t see it and would fall right in.
* Mars has polar caps just like Earth does. But don’t start wondering whether those polar caps have penguins, because you’ll get sidetracked drawing Martian penguins for about three hours. Trust me on this.
* During the winter, Mars gets so cold that almost a quarter of the atmosphere freezes. Sort of like that time we were sledding and Tripp’s sneeze froze to his face.
* Mars’s atmosphere is very thin and made up of mostly carbon dioxide, so it would be impossible for humans to breathe there without a space suit. Sort of like trying to breathe in a blanket fort with Tripp when he goes all sleepover nebula on you.
* Scientists named some of the rocks on Mars’s surface funny names like Scooby Doo, Barnacle Bill, Lumpy, and Hedgehog. There’s even one named Eyebrow. Speaking as someone named after an armpit, I don’t think Eyebrow’s so bad.
SPACE ANIMALS
When I talked about Comet yipping at my heels inside a doggy space helmet, you probably thought I was crazy. I mean, don’t you need thumbs and stuff to operate a flying object? Turns out, lots of animals have been in space. Here are a few:
* In 1948 and 1949 the United States sent several rhesus monkeys into space using a V-2 rocket. This was called the Albert series, because all the monkeys were named Albert. Basically, if someone tells you they’re going to strap you to a rocket and launch you into space and you’re the fourth Albert they’ve sent in a year, and come to think of it, you haven’t seen any of the other Alberts in a really long time … you might consider running away.
* Yorick, a monkey who took a 236,000-foot flight into space on an Aerobee missile in 1951, got the title of First Monkey to Survive a Trip to Space. He was mostly glad his name wasn’t Albert.
* In 1957 the Soviet Union named a stray dog Laika, stuck her on Sputnik 2, and launched her into space. Laika’s name meant “Husky” in Russian, but the United States nicknamed her “Muttnik.” Laika made it into space just fine, but they forgot to figure out a reentry strategy, so Laika probably should have been named Albert.
* “Ham” sounds like the name of the first pig in space, but it actually stands for Holloman Aero Med (because astronauts aren’t any better at coming up with acronyms than I am). Ham was the first chimpanzee to make a suborbital flight, and since Ham made it out okay, they decided maybe Alan B. Shepard Jr. would too. He was the first American to launch into space.
* Enos was the first chimp to hop into a Mercury Atlas rocket (okay, I don’t know for sure that he hopped. In fact, I think it’s pretty unlikely that he hopped. He may have skipped or climbed or been carried or even just plain walked in a chimpy way). He orbited the earth on November 29, 1961. Thanks to Enos’s successful flight, John Glenn was able to orbit the earth just a few months later, in February 1962.
* You probably coul
CASH’S AND ARTY’S MORSE CODE TRANSMISSIONS
WE COME IN PEACE
TAKE ME TO YOUR LEADER
HOW’S THE WEATHER UP THERE?
WHERE IS THE BATHROOM?
I’LL HAVE THE SPAGHETTI
COMET EATS DIRTY SOCKS
VEGA SMELLS LIKE DIRTY SOCKS
CASSI IS A DIRTY SOCK
Acknowledgments
Many awesome people work hard to turn an idea into a book. I’d like to thank some of them now.
As always, first and foremost, I thank my agent, Cori Deyoe, for encouraging me to write a middle-grade story featuring a boy main character. Once again, you knew what I could do before I knew what I could do.
Really good editors are as precious as a foam finger–wearing Martian yeti with a flashlight and a working knowledge of Morse code. Thank you, Brett Wright, for the amazing and thoughtful revisions, the support, the enthusiasm, and especially the doodles. You are out of this world!
Special thanks to Michelle H. Nagler for being the first to love Arty’s story, Nicole Gastonguay for the gorgeous design work, Linette Kim for giving Arty an early read, and Sandra Smith and Pat McHugh for double-checking my space facts and not throwing moon rocks at my head over all the punctuation errors.
I would have no story and no Arty if it weren’t for the curiosity and comic relief of my longtime space buds and travel partners, Weston and Jane. Thank you also to the presenter at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center planetarium in Hutchinson, KS, for making me giggle about an armpit, and to Camp KAOS for making space awesome.
Susan Vollenweider, my friend and first reader, thank you for reminding me that I have middle-grade boy character material surrounding me every second of the day. And for introducing me to sugar-free vanilla caramel coffee creamer, which, trust me, is a huge part of the construction of this book.
#1 in my life, in my heart, and in my corner—biggest, Jupiter-sized thanks are always reserved for Paige, Weston, Rand. You guys are the sun I revolve around. And, Scott, my galaxy can’t even exist without you. I love you.
Copyright © 2014 by Jennifer Brown
All rights reserved
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First published in the United States of America in August 2014
by Bloomsbury Children’s Books
E-book edition published in August 2014
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Jennifer.
Life on Mars / by Jennifer Brown.
pages cm
Summary: Twelve-year-old Arcturus Betelgeuse Chambers’s quest to find life on other planets seems at an end when his parents decide to move to Las Vegas, but while they look for a house he stays with his neighbor, an astronaut who soon becomes a friend.
[1. Astronomy—Fiction. 2. Extraterrestrial beings—Fiction. 3. Astronauts—Fiction.
4. Friendship—Fiction. 5. Family life—Fiction. 6. Moving, Household—Fiction.] I. Title.
PZ7.B814224Lif 2014 [Fic]—dc23 2013038537
ISBN: 978-1-61963-253-0 (e-book)
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Jennifer Brown, Life on Mars