Give Me Some Space

A Story by Kaitlyn Green

What would you do if you were beamed into space unwillingly? Could YOU survive?

Chapter One

Ariana on the kitchen floor playing with her younger brother Thomas, when all of a sudden she heard her mom and dad whispering. Their whispering turned to silence, breaking the silence her mom starting laughing very hard.

Ariana picked up her brother and ran into the living room to see what all of the commotion was about.

“What is it mother?” questioned Ariana with a quite puzzled look on her face.

“The weather man says there will be a meteorite shower tonight,” responded her mother.

Ariana knew what a meteorite was and she knew the damage it could bring with it.

“I learned in science class that they are very destructive, mom!” quivered Ariana.

“Oh nonsense. There won’t be any meteorite shower tonight,” assured her father.

Ariana stomped out of the kitchen, mad and concerned. Ariana thought she had to protect her family because her parents showed no sign of it.

Ariana picked up Thomas and ran downstairs. Down in the basement Ariana grabbed old pots her parents used to wash delicate clothing and rushed up stairs with it. Dashing past her parent’s room, her mother caught of a glimpse of what Ariana was holding.

“Ariana, honey, come back here please,” gently demanded her mother.

Leaving the metal pot outside of her parent’s room, she walked in with a faint, innocent grin on her face.

“Yes, mom?” questioned Ariana.

“Bring the pot in here. Now, what are you doing with the washing pot?”

“I am protecting myself from the meteorite shower tonight.”

“Oh, don’t be silly. If there were to be a meteorite shower tonight, a thin, metal washing pot will not protect you.”

“Since when do you care….” Is all that Ariana got out before walking out of the room, more mad than ever.

Chapter Two

When Ariana and Thomas got back to Ariana’s room, she sat Thomas on her bed and got to work with her “protection plan.”

Ariana walked over to closet and dug through all of the items on the floor.

“Ah Ha!” she shouted happily.

“What are you planning on doing with that?” sarcastically asked her mom shoving her way through all of the stuff of Ariana’s floor.

Ignoring her mom, Ariana kept on working on her invention.

Ariana had done it! She made a helmet with the chin strap of her old t-ball helmet and put it in the holes of the wash pot.

Putting the helmet next to her bed, Ariana went into Thomas’ room and grabbed his special pillow and blanket because tonight, Thomas was going to sleep with her. She bound to determine that if there was a meteorite shower on the way, she could protect her little brother.

Chapter Three

It was the middle of the night and Ariana was awoken by the sounds of her parents arguing in the hallway outside of her room. Ariana slowly got up from her bed and went to open the door to see what all of the commotion in the hallway was about.

“Um guys, its 4:30 A.M.” moaned Ariana still half asleep.

“Honey, what are you going up this early?” quickly snapped her father.

“I was awoken by you guys arguing,” responded Ariana

“So……”

“Listen Darling, we got an emergency call from your uncle, who works for the weather channel. He said there are meteorites on their way. They are going to hit our town!”

Ariana wasn’t sure if it was the right time for an “I told you so” moment.

Ariana and her family gather some canned food from the pantry, blankets from the hallway closet, and bottles of water from the refrigerator and rush down stairs to their storm shelter.

“What are we going to do?” questioned Ariana.

“We all just need to stay calm and relax and wait for all of this to pass,” calmly responded Ariana’s mother.

CRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKKKKKK!!! The family could hear what sounded like large balls of hail falling on top of their house.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM! The sound of the meteorites falling sounded louder than a lion’s roar.

When it sounded like it was finally over, Ariana’s father walked up the stairs and walked past the large kitchen window.

“Candy, you might want to come up here and take a look at this!” shouted Ariana’s father to Ariana’s mother.

“What is it dear?” questioned Candy as she slowly trotted up the stairs, leaving behind the kids to keep them safe from what might be up there.

Upon reaching the top of the steps and to the kitchen window, Ariana’s mother’s mouth dropped like flies around her.

Everything outside wasn’t the same. Where we all of the flowers? Where was all of the grass? Where was swimming pool the family had in their backyard? The house was in a dusty, barren wasteland.

Ariana picked up Thomas at the sound of her mother crying.

“Oh My God!” said Ariana.

“Where are we, mommy?” Ariana questioned with the sound of fright in her voice.

“Honey, I don’t know where we are.”

“Look there is another house over there!” pointed Ariana’s father.

“That is our neighbor’s house!” exclaimed Ariana.

The family walked outside and ventured over to the neighbor’s house, for maybe they had answers to where they were.

Chapter Four

Ariana faintly knocked on the door.

“Well hi there neighbors,” shouted a loud, cheery voice. It was old Mrs. Remery. She was the town librarian. Everyone loved Mrs. Remery.

Mrs. Remery’s husband for your husband, may we come in?” questioned Ariana.

“Oh, sure thing dear! I just made a fresh batch of gingerbread cookies and some cool, refreshing lemonade, if you want some,” said Mrs. Remery in a happy tone.

Ariana replied with a frown of disbelief.

Ariana thought, “Did she not know what just happened?”

“Hello, Joe,” said Candy in a polite manner.

“Well, how do ya do, folks?” Replied Mr. Remery.

“Mr. Remery, Sir, I was wondering how do we get back to our town? Oh yeah, and WHERE THE HELL ARE WE?” asked Ariana’s father.

“Now, calm down. The meteorite shower just launched us up into space and we are now living on Mars. If you want to get home, we will have to team up and build a rocket ship the can transport us home,” Replied Mr. Remery with a happy-go-lucky- smile on his face.

The four adults and two children went outside in search of stuff that could help them get home.

Chapter Five

Ariana sat down on a rock and put Thomas on her lap. She started talking to Thomas, as if he could reply to her.

“Thomas, this is impossible. How will we ever get home? There isn’t anything on this planet except for rocks, dirt, and sticks.”

Thomas acted as if he seemed to understand everything that Ariana was saying. Thomas pointed to the garage that was connected to their house.

“What Thomas? There isn’t anything in there that can help us.”

Thomas whisked out of Ariana’s grip and wobbled over to the garage.

“I better go get him before my parents kill me for leaving him alone by himself,” thought Ariana.

Ariana followed her brother into the garage.

Thomas was pointing at the side car door.

“Thomas, that is a car, we can’t drive it home, silly,” chuckled Ariana as she attempted to pick up her younger brother.

Thomas once again wiggled out of her grasp and opened the car door, using all of his energy. He crawled in the backseat and pulled something out from under the passenger’s seat. It was Ariana’s purse; she had been missing for weeks.

“Thomas that is my purse! I knew you had it all this time!” said Ariana angered.

While Ariana held the purse over her shoulder, Thomas tugged on the long straps. The purse fell to the garage floor. Ariana’s cell phone fell out.

“Bad Thomas!” scolded Ariana.

Thomas picked up the phone.

“Call,” squealed Thomas.

Astonished that Thomas just said his first words, but his idea was genius.

“I can call for help! Great idea Thomas!” Ariana cheered as she dialed 911.

Chapter Six: The Call

“911, what is your emergency?” answered the police dispatcher.

“Hello? Yes, my name is Ariana Darvey and my family has been beamed onto Mars during the meteorite shower last night. We need someone to come and get us,” shouted Ariana into the phone.

The phone was silent for a few seconds; she heard whispering on the other end. Then a loud laugh crackled into the phone.

“Ma’am I am not joking. I am being serious here!” Ariana said desperately.

She hung up on the police and called the weather channel, hoping they would believe her.

When Ariana called the local weather channel a familiar voice answered the phone. It was her uncle.

“Hello. Uncle Dave? This is Ariana”

“Hello Ariana, how are you?”

“Um never mind that. You know that meteorite shower last night?”

“I sure do Ariana”

“The storm last night beamed my family, my neighbors, and me onto Mars”

“Oh No,” gasped Dave.

“What is it?” panicked Ariana.

“During storms, once you are beamed up into space, you only have forty eight hours to live without the amount of oxygen, you will die,” said Dave frantically.

“We have already been up here for about a day,” said Ariana nervously.

“I will send an emergency rocket ship up there to save you. We will have emergency oxygen tanks for you waiting on the ship. Unfortunately, you might not make it. It takes us about twenty four hours to get to Mars.”

“But if we haven’t been here for exactly one day and it takes you exactly one day to get up here, we still have time right?” Ariana said cautiously.

“Your chances are slim, but you might make it. I have to go now to get ready for the space trip. Tell your family and neighbors what I told you and be ready to leave, right when we land.”

“Thank you, Uncle Dave!”

Chapter Seven

After hearing the news, everyone was so happy and nervous at the same time.

Unfortunately, both houses would have to be abandoned and the amount of stuff that could be salvaged was very little.

Ariana and her family rushed into their home to pack as much as they could in suit cases and backpacks.

That night, the two families slept outside in case of early arrival of the rocket that would soon save them.

Chapter Eight: The Rescue?

Early the next morning Ariana and her family were awoken by the sounds of men talking. There was no one in sight.

“What is making that noise?” whispered Ariana to her father.

“I am not sure. You just stay here with your mom I am going to investigate,” her father whispered back.

After returning from looking around and under big rocks, Ariana’s father told them of a discovery he had made. He said that he had found a small camera and a microphone under a rock about a quarter of a mile from where the two families were camping out.

“A camera and a microphone? That is ridiculous Lionel,” said Candy.

“I am serious. Go get the others and I will show you where it is,” he said back determined to show them he was telling the truth.

Mr. and Mrs. Remery didn’t want to go with them and insisted on staying there and waiting for the rocket to arrive.

The Davey family thought nothing of it and went on their way to investigate and illusive camera and microphone under a rock.

When they got to the place where Ariana’s father said he say the camera and microphone, there was surely indeed a camera and a microphone placed under a huge red boulder. The whole family thought it was suspicious. Where they really on Mars like the Remerys’ told them? Was Uncle Dave lying to them when he assured they were in space?

When he parents were walking back to camp, Ariana snuck over and picked up the camera and microphone to examine it. She had seen this type of camera and microphone before….but where?

After getting back to camp Ariana pulled out the camera and microphone from her pocket and set it on the ground to look at it some more. That’s it! She knew where she had seen it before. The local weather channel where her uncle worked has the same kind of camera and microphone sets.

She told her parents about her discovery.

“This makes no sense. What is a camera and microphone set from the local weather channel doing in space?” asked Ariana’s father with a quite puzzled look on his face.

The Davey family packed up their things from their camp and went over to the Remery’s house to tell them about what they had found.

When the Davey family made their way back to the Remery house and knocked on the door, there was no answer.

“Well that sure is strange!” exclaimed Candy.

The door was unlocked so the Davey family entered the Remery home. Once they entered they made a startling discovery, the Remery family had disappeared.

Chapter Nine: The Unveiling

After searching the entire Remery residence the father noticed something particular. The walls of the Remery house had changed; the walls of the house matched the walls of the dressing rooms of the anchors on the local weather channel.

“Very Good, Sir!” said a voice stepping out behind a wall in the Remery house. The voice belonged to Uncle Dave.

“What are you going here, Dave?” said Candy angered.

“It’s simple. I work here,” answered Dave chuckling.

It all made sense to Ariana know.

“I had read an article in the newspaper that the local weather channel was making a Mars simulator. It is like living on Mars but it has oxygen and all of the key items a human needs to live,” said Ariana.

“You are a very smart girl, Ariana,” said Dave dramatically.

“Why did you choose us?” asked Ariana’s father.

“Well no one else volunteered to test out our simulator, so I decided you guys would be a good fit for the job.”

“There is still one thing that doesn’t make sense to me,” snapped Ariana.

“What is it Ariana?” questioned Dave.

“What happened to the Remerys? Or who were those people?”

“Those were in-fact, your neighbors, the Remerys. We thought if we sent someone in with you who knew the plan it would seem more realistic, if it happened to more than one family.

“Well, it’s still not funny that you did this!” shouted Ariana as Dave walked out of the room.

When Dave returned he came back with a briefcase clutched in his right hand. Dave opened the briefcase. There was money inside. A lot of money!

“What is that for?” questioned Candy.

Dave answered with “It’s just the money we give to people who can survive more than forty eight hours in our simulator.

“I think with all of this money, we can afford an actual trip to Mars!” said Ariana. Everyone laughed.

The End