One Small Step For Men...

Submitted into Contest #99 in response to: End your story with somebody stepping out into the sunshine.... view prompt

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Adventure Fiction Friendship

“Only six days left until I get to be in space!” I said to my mother, Phoebe.

“Calm down Jack. It isn’t all that exciting.” Phoebe announced.

My ma was very old and hard of hearing, so she didn’t know what she was talking about.

Going to space has been my dream since I was a little kid and I finally got the chance to go up there.

I studied space when I was in high school and I loved it.

When I was little, I met a friend named Grant and he is still my friend till this very day.

Grant had brown hair, and blue eyes. I had dark black hair and brown eyes.

It was four o’clock in the afternoon so I made some quesadillas for dinner then headed straight to bed.

The only reason I was going to bed at six thirty in the afternoon was because in space I wouldn’t be getting much sleep.

I drifted off at about seven and woke up around eight o’clock. 

I had a very bad habit of sleeping in and was always late for work. 

I worked for Google as the head boss’s assistant. I just did the same thing every single day until I got to go to space. On the day we were going to be going to space I had to wake up early and pack. 

The rocket that went into space was going to depart at around eight thirty and it was already four in the morning. 

It was a two and a half hour long drive to NASA and there was going to be traffic which would take a total of three hours to get there.

When I got there I walked in and found Grant walking with an assistant to the spot where the spaceship was.

I ran up to Grant and started to walk with him. 

“Hi Jack!” Grant said to me.

“What's up?” I said back to him in a screeching high voice.

He thought there was something wrong with my voice but it was just something that sometimes happens when I get excited.

The assistant guided us into the spaceship and showed us where we sat on it. 

The ship was facing upright so we had to enter through the side. 

There was a lot of cool stuff in there too like astronaut suits and cool space stuff.

We got out of the spaceship and then went to have breakfast at a nearby Chick-Fil-a.

We ordered then hurried back to the NASA building. I gobbled down my breakfast and we got on the spaceship.

We had to use all these buckles and put on a suit so we could breathe when we got into space.

Once everybody was buckled in we got ready for flight to space.

“10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1...Blast off!” Everybody in the ship yelled in unison.

The ship was going so fast I felt like those buckles and straps weren’t enough. 

It takes about eight and a half minutes to get into orbit, and the second we took off, I regretted eating breakfast.

I looked around for a barf bag and threw up in it three times. 

I didn’t know where to put it so I just set it down on the floor.

That was a bad idea though, because it silid back and hit a few electrical wires and I might have broken them because I saw some sparks.

The ship kept going until the ship finally got through the atmosphere.

It felt like it slowed down, but it was just going faster. 

I read in a book that you could unbuckle after it reached space.

I struggled to get out of the straps and unbuckle but I finally got it.

I saw Grant floating around so I “swam” to him.

We could all communicate through the helmets so I started to talk to Grant.

“The views are great, right?” I asked Grant.

“No kidding.” Said Grant. We both “swam” over to the window and looked at the views. 

We saw Earth and basically all of the planets. It makes you feel grateful for how beautiful the Earth really is.

I looked down at Australia which is where I lived with my grandma,Phoebe.

The ship came to a stop and everybody got up this time. 

I saw a guy walking towards me and Grant and soon realized it was the captain.

“Hello Grant Dlutowski. Jack Mclillan. It's so great that you're here!” The captain said.

“It truly is an honor.” Grant said to...he looked at his tag on his shirt and it said Captain Joe Harris. 

“We will be arriving at the ISS (International Space Station) soon.” Captain Harris said to us.

“Can we have a tour of the ship?” I asked.

“Sure thing. But the ship isn’t really that big.” He said

I didn’t care about the size though, I just wanted to explore around the ship. 

He showed us the room where we went if the ship ever blew up, the room where they keep food,etc…

When we were done exploring the ship I looked out of a window and saw the ISS in the distance. It took about another ten minutes then we finally got there.

While we were on the tour of the ship, captain Joe told us that we would be able to go for a fifteen minute long “swim” outside of the spaceship.

The ship got connected to the ISS and we got onto it.

It was way bigger than the ship we were one. They connected us to some weird tubes so that when we went into space we wouldn’t float off when we went.

There were two more groups before us so we had to wait thirty minutes.

To pass the time,we went exploring on the ISS.

We found these really cool ships that looked like they were from Star Wars.

I was a huge fan of Star Wars, but Grant was more of a Harry Potter fan.

When we got back to the spot where we would get out of the ship, they said they were ready for us.

They hooked us up to the tubes and then opened the spaceship door. 

The sun was right in our view. I felt nervous and my hands were sweaty.

I stepped out, looking at the bright,beautiful sun,having gravity carry me through space. I felt like I was walking straight into the sunshine, but clearly, I wasn't.

June 22, 2021 21:55

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2 comments

23:42 Jun 22, 2021

Great story! Couple things: First, I think it takes around six hours to get to the ISS, so did they explore the spaceship for like five hours? Lol! Also, is there sunset in space? Love what you did with the prompt! -Bella

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