Suki and the Cardboard Rocket

She pressed the big red button… Nothing happened — not even when she pressed it again. Then Suki leaned down to the button and said, very quietly, "Please." The box shivered…

One by one, the bottle caps lit up — blue, and green, and yellow, and red! The rocket began to glow, and with a noise like the biggest kettle in the world — FSSSSHHHOOOOOM! The garden dropped away, and the whole town spread out below like a rug, with its lights just coming on. "Co-pilot," said Suki, gripping the sides, "we're going to SPACE!"

SQUELCH — the rocket landed on a wobbly pink planet and sank nearly up to its cockpit. Suki climbed out, and her boots sank too — "Jelly, the whole planet is jelly!" She bounced higher than the rocket, higher than the tallest tree, laughing so hard she couldn't breathe! Noodle bounced once, by accident, and did not care for it.

Then Suki looked back at the rocket… It was sinking — slowly, with a long, wet, sucking sound, the jelly was swallowing it! "NOODLE!" She pulled and pulled, but the jelly pulled back — up an inch, and down two.

Then Noodle stepped forward, looked at the jelly, and looked at Suki… …and very calmly, he began to lick it — SHLURP! With every shlurp, more and more of the rocket appeared. Shlurp, shlurp, shlurp — the rocket popped free, they scrambled in, and FSSSHOOOM, they were off!

Noodle licked his whiskers, and Suki said, "You are the best co-pilot in space." The second planet was blue, and it was raining — but the rain was going UP! Suki stuck her head out, and the rain went straight up her nose — ahh-choo — sending her helmet sailing away into space! Then Suki noticed the fuel gauge…

The crayon needle that once pointed at Full was now pointing at… EMPTY. Suki looked at the rain going up and said, "Well… why not?" She held the jam jar out upside down, because on this planet, that was the right way up. The jar filled to the brim, she flipped it back — and PING, the gauge pointed at Full!

Rocket science, it turned out, was mostly guessing. The third planet was gray, and quiet, and covered in hills — and the hills were… breathing. "Giants," breathed Suki, "sleeping giants — don't wake them." Tiptoe, tiptoe — they crept beside two enormous knees and past a hand as big as a bus…

And then Noodle sneezed — pfft! The nearest hill stirred… and rolled over… HRRRRRRRR — a snore so big it blew the rocket, and Suki, and Noodle, clean off the planet! Suki caught the tumbling rocket, tucked Noodle under her arm, and hauled them both into its cockpit.

They tumbled over and over, until the stars stopped spinning. Suki looked out of the cockpit — no jelly planet, no rain planet, no giants — just stars. "Noodle," she said in a small voice, "I don't know the way home." Noodle curled up in her lap and purred — it helped, but it was not directions.

Then, out of the darkness ahead, came a light — big, and round, and silver… The moon was looking right into the cockpit! "You," said the moon, "are a very long way from your garden." "We got blown," said Suki — and the moon smiled, "Everyone does, the first time, so follow me."

Past the stars they went, past a comet that waved, towards a big blue planet with all its clouds on — her very own! Down, down through the clouds, toward one town, one street, and one garden with a shed. BUMP — the rocket landed right where it started, and the bottle caps went dark. The back door opened, and Mama leaned out: "Suki — dinner!"

Suki climbed out with Noodle under her arm and called, "Coming!" That night, Suki lay in bed and looked out the window at the rocket by the shed — just a box, with a traffic cone on top. Except one bottle cap, right at the bottom, was glowing again — very faintly — blue. Noodle jumped onto the bed and turned around three times.

"Tomorrow," Suki told him, "we'll bring snacks." And far above the shed, round and silver and patient, the moon shone in at the window, keeping the way open.