Todd Strasser - Fallout

Unfortunately, Mrs. Sinclair was in the kitchen making breakfast when she looked out the window and saw four glittering gold streams cascading down onto her rosebushes. We were immediately sent home.

“How come she changed her mind?” Freak O’ Nature asked while he, Ronnie, and I walked over for birthday cake.

“Maybe she figures we could all be dead tomorrow, so what does it matter?” Ronnie said.

Mrs. Sinclair let us in with a narrow-eyed look as if warning that if we did anything wrong this time, we would be banned from her house forever. The funny thing about the Sinclairs was that they weren’t all brains like Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny? Mr. Sinclair owned a plumbing company and spent most evenings watching TV. And a few months before, Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny?’s eight-year-old sister, Barbara, had swallowed a safety pin and had to go to the hospital.

Mrs. Sinclair served a cake with a rocket ship made of icing, and we sang “Happy Birthday,” only under his breath, Ronnie sang:

I was afraid Mrs. Sinclair had heard him, but she smiled while she cut the rocket cake, so it looked like we were in the clear.

Then Mr. Sinclair brought out a long box wrapped in birthday paper, and Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny? got excited because inside was a telescope, and he said we should all go up to his porch and look through it. As we headed upstairs, Mrs. Sinclair once again gave Ronnie, Freak O’ Nature, and me that look that said we were dead if we got into any mischief.

Out on the porch, Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny? set up the telescope. I felt my insides corkscrew when I imagined looking through it and seeing Russian missiles streaking our way.

He aimed the telescope at the moon. “That big white spot is Copernicus crater. And that round dark area right above it? That’s called the Mare Imbrium. It’s Latin for ‘the Sea of Rains.’”

“It rains on the moon?” said Freak O’ Nature.

“It was a sea of lava,” explained Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny? “A long time ago, a huge asteroid hit the surface and made a hole so deep that lava came out.”

“What’s an asteroid?” Freak O’ Nature asked.

“It’s like a shooting star,” said Johnny. “Only it’s just a big space rock. People used to think they were stars because they glowed when they burned up in the atmosphere.”

I looked up into the dark. A tiny, starlike dot was moving slowly across the night sky. “Like that?” I pointed.

“Oh, my gosh!” Johnny gasped excitedly. “It’s Echo ! The communications satellite.”

“You can see it?” Ronnie asked, dubiously.

“It’s a giant silver balloon,” said Johnny. “This is unreal!”

What was unreal was seeing Johnny get so excited. He never acted like this.

“How do you know it’s not a shooting star?” asked Freak O’ Nature.

“They streak across the sky and are gone in an instant,” said Johnny.

“And how do you know it’s not Sputnik ?” asked Ronnie. Sputnik was a Russian satellite.

“You can’t see Sputnik, ” said Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny? “Here, everyone look.”

We took turns looking at Echo through the telescope. It still looked like a bright dot, only bigger.

“You know that the Ruskies sent Sputnik into space to prove they had a rocket strong enough to launch a nuclear bomb at us?” said Ronnie, looking at me. “Think your bomb shelter can stand up to that, Scott?”

“Pretty soon it won’t even matter,” said Johnny as we watched Echo creep across the star-speckled sky. “Now that we can put men in space, they’re going to build laser cannons that can destroy a whole city with a single blast.”

I didn’t know whether laser cannons were something Johnny had read about in his Tom Swift books or something real, and I didn’t want to ask because I was afraid I’d look dumb. Besides, what difference would it make? Why did they need laser cannons when they already had nuclear bombs that could destroy everything? All I knew was that for an instant, while looking at Echo, I’d managed to forget about war, but now it had all come rushing back.

High above us, Echo gradually dimmed and vanished into the dark.

“Where’d it go?” asked Freak O’ Nature.

“Into Earth’s shadow,” said Johnny.

We watched the sky for something else exciting to come along, but nothing did. Behind us, Ronnie was peering through the telescope. Only it was pointed across the street.

“What are you doing?” asked Johnny.

“Nothing,” Ronnie answered.

Why Can’t You Be Like Johnny? aimed the telescope at the moon again and showed us some mountains and craters. Then Mrs. Sinclair came out and said it was time to go.

Outside the Sinclairs’ house, Freak O’ Nature went one way, and Ronnie and I went the other. Bugs zoomed crazily around the streetlights, kind of like missiles.

“Guess what I saw tonight?” Ronnie asked.

“The moon and that Echo satellite.”

“How about Paula’s bedroom?”

“How?”

“With the telescope, dummy. Right into her window. Want to know what I saw?”

I stopped under a streetlight and squinted at him. Here we were possibly on the brink of World War III, and all he could think about was looking in a girl’s bedroom. My jaw tightened, and I suddenly felt angry. Maybe because I was so scared and he was acting like he wasn’t. “No,” I said.

Ronnie put his hands on his hips. “Sure, you do.”

“No… I… don’t.”

Dad looks down from the trapdoor with a pained expression. “Steven, could you climb up here? Herb, would you get everyone back into the shelter, and then come up and join us?”

“But, Dad—” Sparky starts.

“You’ll all be out soon,” Dad promises. “You just have to wait a little longer.”

Mr. McGovern herds us back around the shield wall. His eyes look glittery. In a quavering voice, he says, “Stephanie, make sure the kids stay put.”

Janet and Mrs. Shaw stand guard by the shield wall to make sure we don’t try to sneak back into the corridor. You’d think they’d be ecstatic that we can finally get out, but they’re both quiet and sad.

“Why can’t we go?” Sparky asks.

“Soon, I promise.” Mrs. Shaw strokes his head reassuringly.

Sparky looks up into Janet’s face. She nods.

Ronnie leans so close, his lips practically touch my ear. “You know what was on top of the door?” he whispers.

“Uh-huh.”

Paula’s face scrunches up as if she might start to cry. Ronnie reaches out, hesitates, then places his hand on her arm. I watch their eyes meet. “We’ll all get out soon,” he says, sounding just like my father.

But every second we wait feels like forever. Cold air fills the shelter, and we start to shiver. Finally Dad calls down, “Scott?”

I go into the corridor and squint in the light coming through the square above. Dad’s up there, out of the shelter, wearing dungarees and a sweatshirt. “It won’t be long,” he says, dropping down a box of Ritz crackers and a package of Oreo cookies. “Here’s something to keep you busy. They’re okay to eat.”

Back in the shelter, everyone eats ravenously. Stale crackers and cookies never tasted so good.

“Why not?” Ronnie asked.