The girl with curly hair stared out the classroom window. A breeze shook the trees’ red leaves.
Inside, she and ten other kids sat quietly as their teacher displayed a map of the solar system.
“Who can name the planet closest to the Sun?”
The classroom went silent as students thought about the question and worried whether they knew the answer well enough to respond. Finally, one boy on the back row raised his hand.
“Mercury?” he said.
“That’s right,” the teacher replied. She tapped the tiny dot. Suddenly the planet’s surface filled the entire view. Then with two taps the entire solar system was visible again.
“Now, what is the name of the second planet from the Sun?”
Three hands flew up, and the teacher called on a girl sitting in the front row.
“The second planet from the sun is Venus,” she said with certainty.
“That’s right.” The teacher tapped the green dot and the surface of Venus became visible. Two taps revealed the entire solar system again.
Then the teacher said, “Now, we will skip the third planet, of course.” She giggled. The kids snickered. “What is the name of the fourth planet from the Sun?”
All hands flew up, and the teacher paused for a moment trying to decide who to select. She looked toward the curly haired girl near the window. The teacher often worried about her because she seemed to have trouble paying attention.
But this time her daydreamer was not staring out the window. The girl was looking straight at her with her hand raised as high as she could lift it.
The teacher called on her.
With the biggest smile, she said enthusiastically, “That’s home, teacher! That is home.”
“Yes, that’s right. That is home.”
The rest of the class began to clap, and the teacher joined them.
Then with loud, joyous voices, they all began to shout in unison:
“We are Martian!”
“We are Martian!”
“We are Martian!”
A work of fiction from Stories I Tell.
