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The following short story was submitted by Teri Wiss, who teaches fourth and fifth grade at The Colby School.

Moon Bounce

Mary Dunford

He walked off the edge of his grassy yard, stumbling on the root of the shade tree that cools his house in the hot Australian summers. Sammy peered into the deep black sky. It looked pretty when the moon cast its white sparkling light onto the dark, sandy-orange desert floor.

It was his dream to go to the moon. He knew everything about it. He had read every book about the moon, and that’s what he was always thinking about. Sammy was a simple kangaroo, a red kangaroo to be exact. He had brown knotted hair which looked like someone had just rubbed him with a wet towel.

"It’s beautiful," he told himself, gazing up into the sky. "And it will be tonight that I shall go to the moon! But how will I get there? Think Sammy! Think!"

He snapped his tiny fingers.

"Well I’m a kangaroo right? Kangaroos jump high, correct? So maybe I can jump to the moon!"

He tried his idea, jumping up and grabbing at the moon. It didn’t work.

"Maybe I need my pogo stick!" exclaimed Sammy.

He ran inside, got his pogo stick, and started to hop! Hop! Hop! He came closer but still, no cigar.

"What’s bouncier than my pogo stick?" he pondered.

He thought and he thought, "Of course, my trampoline!"

Sammy ran to the back of his hut. He jumped on and began bouncing. It took only a few minutes for Sammy to figure this wasn’t going to work. He slumped over and sat on a rock, folding back his ears.

"I’ll keep thinking."

Then an absolutely brilliant idea came to his head.

"If I strap fireworks to my pogo stick and then jump on my trampoline, I could blast myself to the moon!" When everything was set, he lit the fireworks and BOOM! The pogo stick blasted below him but the force of the blast was so strong he broke right through the atmosphere.

"It worked!" Sammy was quite pleased with himself. He zoomed past the stars. Sammy was going so fast that his tongue flapped and his cheeks filled with cold, lifeless air. Soon he found himself floating gently onto the moon’s rocky surface.

"This is one big leap for kangaroos, one giant hop for marsupials!"

Later that day he hitched a ride back to Earth with some astronauts who said that this was their first trip to the moon, too. They asked Sammy if he was hungry.

"No thanks," he said. "I had an endless supply of cheese on the moon. Would you like some?"

Sammy reached into his pouch and held out a hand full of old moldy cheese. They didn’t want any. The astronauts were friendly though. They even said that he could come and visit them at NASA. Boy Sammy sure was excited!

"You mean I get to meet real NASA workers?!?" Neil Armstrong nodded his head. Sammy fainted. That night as their rocket headed back to the space station, Sammy looked around. Everyone was asleep. Thoughts flew around in his head.

"I wonder what it would be like if I could make it to Jupiter? Maybe even ..Mars?"

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