Dr. Herbert Benjamin
looking straight ahead.
Just as Henry got to the rocket, an astronaut was
getting into an elevator to go up and get into the capsule
at the top. Henry tapped him on the shoe to ask if he
could go along but he didn’t notice, so Henry slid up on
the shoe and slipped inside.
When they got up to the capsule a lot of people got
busy strapping the astronaut down. They were saying
numbers and saying things into little microphones in
their hands, but Henry didn’t understand.
Finally they left the capsule, and Henry and the
astronaut were alone.
Henry wondered what would happen next. He was
going to ask the astronaut, but suddenly there was a
roar and they started moving so fast he couldn’t talk.
Then all of a sudden it seemed they weren’t
moving at all, and Henry began to float around in the
capsule.
He landed on the big sheet of glass in the front of
the astronaut’s helmet and held tight.
Henry waved through the glass and said, “Hello.
Are we going around the apple, I mean the world, now?”
The astronaut didn’t answer. Instead he said into a
little microphone, “There’s a small green object about
the size of a pickle that’s loose in the capsule.”
Henry could just hear someone answer in the
astronaut’s earphones: “Can you make out what it is?”
The astronaut’s eyes looked hard at Henry and
said, “Why, it
is
a pickle.”
“A pickle?” came the answer from the astronaut’s
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