How to Become a Planet by Nicole Melleby

Author:Nicole Melleby [Melleby, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Algonquin Books
Published: 2021-05-25T00:00:00+00:00

Which is how Fallon ended up buckled into the back seat with Pluto as they drove up the turnpike and through the Lincoln Tunnel, making their way to the center of New York City.

Fallon’s hair was short and curly, off her neck and out of her eyes, and Pluto loved it. Fallon looked lighter, as if the weight of her hair had fallen heavily on her shoulders before and now she was free to keep her head up, for her eyes to shine and her smile to be even more visible. Or maybe she was just smiling more that day. Regardless, Pluto could not stop looking at her.

“What?” Fallon said, when she caught Pluto staring. Her eyes narrowed in their defensive way, her cheeks turning pink. “You don’t like it.”

“No!” Pluto nearly shouted in the small space of the car. “I love it!”

Her mom smiled in the rearview mirror. “Your mom is a better person than I am, Fallon, to agree to leaving you in Pluto’s care again.”

Pluto rolled her eyes. Fallon laughed.

In fairness, Pluto was surprised Fallon’s mom had agreed to let Fallon come with her for the weekend, too, but her mom had been on the phone with Fallon’s mom for nearly an hour. Pluto tried not to listen, but she knew her mom had told Fallon’s mom everything.

Which should have made Pluto feel more like a pity friend, a charity for Fallon, but really, she was just relieved. She didn’t have to face the uncertainty of the city or her dad’s apartment alone. And now her mom had to come pick them up at the end of the weekend.

They came out of the Lincoln Tunnel into what Pluto could only describe as chaos. Cars on either side of them, horns honking, tires skidding, as they wove in and out of their lanes. Crowds of people crossing at crosswalks, and before crosswalks, distracted by taking pictures and in a hurry to get to wherever they needed to be. Tall buildings stretched up and out and covered them in shadows, even though the sun was bright that day. Pluto’s mom had her window rolled down and her sunglasses on as she hummed along to the radio, not noticing, or at least not caring about, the sticky heat, the smoggy wet smells, the clamor and noise and busyness.

In the second grade, Pluto made one of the most popular of science fair projects: a Styrofoam solar system, the planets circling the sun when she pushed them along their orbits. But now, Pluto knew enough about space to know that the planetary alignment of those painted balls in her science project couldn’t possibly do the real thing justice. In reality, they move at different speeds, in different directions, circling at their own pace, in their own orbit.

That was what the city felt like now, as Pluto stopped looking out her window.

You don’t need a telescope to find chaos in the universe—just look right outside your window.

Pluto already missed the clear view of the sky, the sound of the seagulls, the space of the boardwalk.

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