An Unexpected Journey

There it was. The 'red planet' , as NASA calls it. Suddenly , a deafening voice rings in my ears and the view fades away. Let me start from the beginning. There was pin drop silence in the class. This sort of silence was not expected in a classroom, unless of course there was a teacher in the class, and there she was, sitting on the chair with one of her legs crossed over the other as in a position to play a guitar. The only difference was that she was holding a book instead. The cover of the book read 'Gone With The Wind'. I was sitting in the farthest corner of the class. I was not given this place, I chose it as there was a less chance of getting caught while cheating in a test.

Oh sorry , I should have told you. We were ACTUALLY taking a test. But this wasn't an ordinary one, this was organised by NASA. You heard it right folks. NASA had decided to give a chance to two very very very lucky children to go to Mars. Who could miss this chance? I mean everything was paid for so definitely everyone took the test, except for some artistic freaks who thought NASA was lying. Well back to the class. I am Alex Miles. Totally nerdy. And i was stuck on question 7 of the NASA test. It said "Q: What is the thickness of the atmosphere of Mars?". Honestly I had no idea . My friend, Lewis , who was sitting just in front of the teacher , looked worried. He looked at me nervously and made a sign with his fingers "Q;7". I raised my hands up to my chest and waved them soothingly , saying "Relax , I know the answer". His expressions became normal again. You could tell, he definitely was happy. I mean a nerd helping you, you are in luck. He waited anxiously for me to tell the answer. I made a gesture "(a)". He quickly wrote the answer and looked at me with sparkling eyes. What I made out of it was that he was saying "Thank You". Our hands shot in the air and the words automatically coming out of our mouths"ma'am done.".

With a grunt look on her face, the teacher put her book down and gestured us to go and give the tests to her. We did so with a sigh of relief. It looked like as if someone had taken a heavy weight from our shoulder away. Me and Lewis started talking in the waiting room. "Did you really know the answer to Q;7?"Lewis asked. "Nah. I played a hunch"I answered.

After a few minutes , many children started to hand their papers to the teacher. When all the papers were collected, the teacher exited the class and someone else came in. It was Dr.Stanley Parker. He was the reason we were sitting here. Sending two children in space was all his idea. "I see that all of you have finished the test. So , how did it go?"he asked .No one answered. Dr.Parker understood what the silence meant."Ummmmm, so was it that bad. Never mind. The results will be displayed on the common board next week. Good luck.". There was weeping in the class. Everyone was crying . I even heard someone say "Going to mars was my destiny , even my astrologer told me"and then broke into weeping again.

The following week passed slowly. And finally, the day came. I reached school and starting to head towards the common board only to find a crowd there. I spotted Lewis in the middle of the crowd. “Umm, Lewis?” I asked. As soon as the people heard me, they looked at me with extreme jealousy. What was it? Are my hair all right? My clothes? Was it uniform day today? I patted on Lewis’ shoulder. “Is everything OK?” I asked him. He slowly turned around. And I saw that he was …………weeping? Did we lose? Badly? “Tears of joy my friend. We won” he spoke in a hoarse whisper. I fainted.

When I woke up, I was in the medical room. I saw Lewis sitting on a chair beside me. As soon as he saw me, he helped me up. I tried to sit up straight. Dr.Parker entered the room. "Alex, are you alright? What happened?"he asked. "Just lost control. I couldn't believe it."I answered. "Well, we take off in two weeks, we will leave on 19 December and hopefully will be back by 9 April."he told us . Hopefully?

The following two weeks were family gathering, congratulations, parties, hugs, take cares,etc. And we were arranged a flight to America that is the NASA headquarters.The day came. We boarded our ship. RAP-74657. We took off . We were given sedation pills because they said it was going to be a long ride. When I woke up, I saw Lewis pointing out of the ship. "we.......there..........come........"he said. I couldn't hear exactly what he said , but what I made out of it was that we were there. I saw out of the window.

There it was. The 'red planet' , as NASA calls it. Suddenly , a deafening voice rings in my ears. I cover my ears but the voice gets louder. "waeu.......wak u............wake p.........................wake up WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP" And then..................................................................................................................I WOKE UP.