Astrotwins — Project Blastoff Read Online Free Page B

Territory.”
    Barry said that sounded good, even if he didn’t have a lot of confidence in Mark and Scott’s project. Barry loved his brother, but Tommy’s homecoming had been an adjustment for the family. Barry wouldn’t mind a vacation.

CHAPTER 9
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    Mark and Scott wanted to telephone Egg to make a plan for their next visit to Greenwood Lake and tell her about the project. Maybe they’d even read her the list they made. But their parents vetoed a phone call.
    â€œIt’s long-distance, the toll charges are expensive, and you guys are still in debt,” Dad said that night at dinner. “Why not write her a letter? Stamps only cost ten cents.”
    Mark and Scott looked at one another. The only letters they ever wrote were birthday and Christmas thank-you notes.
    â€œHow long would a letter take to get to Greenwood Lake?” Mark asked.
    â€œIf you mail it Monday morning, it will be there on Tuesday,” Dad said. “I can get the address from your grandfather.”
    â€œBut you’ll have to phone him to get it!” Mark said. “So in that case, why can’t we just—”
    â€œBecause I have to call Grandpa anyway,” Dad said. “And because I’m the one who pays the phone bill.”
    Mom looked up from her spaghetti. “Excuse me?”
    â€œCorrection,” Dad said. “Your mom and I pay the phone bill. And all the other bills, too.”
    After dinner, Scott and Mark were watching Emergency! , one of their favorite shows, when Dad came into the living room and handed them a slip of paper with Jenny O’Malley’s address on it. After the show was over, Scott copied the list they had made that morning onto a fresh sheet of yellow legal paper, and Mark wrote the letter:
    Dear Egg, also known as Egghead, also known as Jenny,
    My brother and I think you might be able to help us with a project. If you’re interested, I mean. We think you might be helpful because, like you said, you are an egghead. We are not. Anyway, what it is is building a spaceship like a Mercury spacecraft that orbits Earth one time. We think it could blast off from somewhere around our grandpa’s house and splash down in the lake.
    We could work on it next time we visit Grandpa. We hope next week. Is next week okay?Our friend Barry is going to help, too. He is also an egghead.
    Scott wrote the list of stuff we think we will need. I guess there might be more, too. It is in the envelope with this letter.
    There is one more thing. We don’t think we should tell any grown-ups about it. Grown-ups might think it is a bad idea. However, Grandpa doesn’t count. He thought of it in the first place.
    Do you want to work on this project with us?
    Yours truly,

    Mark Kelly
    Scott had made some suggestions while Mark was writing, and now he read the letter over, frowned, and suggested a PS, which Mark added:
    P.S.—It is okay if you don’t want to.
    Mom mailed the letter on her way to work on Monday morning.
    On Tuesday they checked the mailbox in front of their house, even though Mom and Dad both told them it was physically impossible for Egg to have answered that fast. Then, on Wednesday, they checked again andsure enough, there was a letter addressed to Mark and Scott Kelly!
    Egg’s handwriting was as neat as Scott’s, but bigger and rounder. They were glad she hadn’t used pink ink or smelly stationery. It was just a plain letter in blue ink on lined paper.
    Dear Mark and Scott,
    I would like to help you with the project. If you can come to Greenwood Lake next Wednesday and stay a few days, that would be good. We can go to the library to do research.
    I understand about not telling grown-ups. But I have a question. After the project is all done, would it be okay if I submitted it for the annual school science fair? In my grade the same kid, Steve Peluso, gets a blue ribbon every single year, and I am sick of it. If our spaceship