Once, there was a boy named Peter. He was a classic seven-year-old who lived in NYC. Peter liked his life, but thought it could be better. And for that, he had a dream. A dream to find a new life not on planet Earth! He was even more determined than his favorite football player, Eli Manning, was when he wanted to win the Super Bowl against the New England Patriots. There was only one problem. Where would he get a vehicle to take him far enough to discover a new life form?

One day, his parents asked him where he would want to go for vacation, since school was over, and it was a great time to go to a museum or something that would be less warm.

Peter told his parents, “I want to go see NASA.” He did this so he could find how rockets were made.

His parents said yes because it was a great idea and something they had never done. It was air-conditioned and had a good amount of tourist attraction. So one day, they set off by renting a car and drove all the way to the base of NASA.

After they had parked, they walked to the nearest hotel and bought a room for a week and a half. Then, they went back to NASA, and they bought a ticket for a tour of what Peter wanted: the making of a rocket.

“It’s good,” said his parents, “because it’s on display and very creative.”

After they got there, a tour guide took them to one rocket with about twenty other people. It was a model of the rocket that took off to the moon that landed Neil Armstrong. The NASA building, from the outside, looked like a big, white dome with a helicopter landing on it. Inside, though, when you went in, you would think it was a tunnel for big worms.  Nobody was scared, because they had a tour guide with them. But if you went one way or any of the others, you would find a room bigger than your apartment. Each room had a different section, but they were all related to discovering more about space in new ways.

One room showed how to launch a rocket. One room had instructions on how to build a rocket. In the room where Peter was, it was like two modern apartment buildings, and if you cut the apartment buildings in half, in one of them, you would find the rocket. The room smelled of gasoline, but otherwise was regular. If you looked in the other half, you would see a lot of big labels on all the parts of the rocket. The tour guide lead them towards the rocket. He took a key, different from all others, that looked like a big “N.” He turned a notch in what looked like the middle of the bottom part of the rocket. Somehow, a little hatch opened, and he told the visitors to come inside. He showed them the different parts, like the airbag compartments and the fuel holders. When they came out, he showed them the other side, where there were the big labels. He asked the visitors if they thought they could label all the parts of the rocket. No one could, except for Peter. When Peter went, he somehow named all of the labels in the right spots. When he did that, he thought he had a special connection with that rocket. He felt so weird that he couldn’t hear the tour guide congratulating him. After he had known, he had thanked the tour guide. It was so fun that they didn’t know that the day was over. So when they came back out, it was exceptionally dark. All they did was go to their hotel and brush their teeth and go to sleep.

The next morning when they woke up, they went right back to the NASA building. They asked for another ticket to another room where they would see how NASA launched rockets. When they were finished, they were amazed at how much work and money it took to launch just one rocket. They came back out to get a snack. They went to the Official NASA Snack Bar. In the Snack Bar, Peter bought a hot dog and gulped it down, and they went back to their hotel room to take a break.

While they were going back, Peter used some of his allowance to buy a little space kit with a rocket launcher and a rocket. It was a little, electric toy rocket with a little figurine space astronaut inside. You could put the astronaut in the rocket and put the rocket on the launcher, and it would go about five feet in the air. Peter thought that this was amazingly awesome, and that’s all he did the rest of the day. They thought this was so fun that they asked the hotel to extend their stay by one day, even though they still had a lot of time left.

When they woke up the next morning, they bought another ticket for NASA, this time to see another section on how scientists invented space suits for astronauts to get air and oxygen while in space. They also saw a mini rover, and Peter was amazed by what special wheels the scientists had to make so the rover could go on the moon. They even got to have a little ride in the mini rover.

When they went back, after the day, they had pizza. After that, they went back to their room and said that was one of the best days they had ever had, and that this was the best vacation they ever had.

When he went the next day, they went to yet another section, where he had fun touching fingerprints when he was not supposed to. He got in a little trouble, but not enough to get him kicked out. When he finally realized that this was not a good idea, he had fun just looking at pictures that scientists had just recovered from the robots on Mars. The fingerprints that he had touched were actually footprints from people that walked on the moon. When they went back, they asked to just see the room that they saw first, because that was where Peter wanted to go. They let him go for free. If you hadn’t known all this time, Peter always had his new favorite toy, the electric rocket launcher and rocket, in his pocket.

They went to the room, and accidentally, the little rocket that stuck out of his pocket touched the model rocket in the room. When this happened, a big red flash burst a hole in the NASA building. There was a big shout as the rocket sprouted from his pocket through the hole in the building. Peter was so amazed when the rocket launcher held up the rocket from his little toy. His toy rocket that sprouted became as big and as real-looking as the Apollo 11 rocket. His rocket launcher had also grown to hold up his rocket. Peter was so amazed and even more excited, because this was his chance to make his new life form. But he didn’t know how he would get into the rocket. Then, he thought of how the tour guide took that key from his pocket to open the model rocket. So Peter reached into his own pocket, and somehow, magically, the same looking key was in his pocket. He opened the door in his rocket, and he went about looking in his own new rocket.

It looked exactly like it had in the model rocket, but brighter, newer, and more real. He called from one of the windows, and he said to anyone, “Who wants to see a new life form with me?”

While this was happening, a big crowd of people had gathered around to see what the little boy did. They were so terrified and confused at what Peter had just shouted, but they were so excited that they just climbed aboard to see what adventure they would get into. Peter pulled his parents along and the crowd also, and ushered them all into the air tanks. He told them all to put on air tanks so they could get going on this miraculous adventure.

Now, Peter thought, all he had to do was see if this rocket actually worked. And he thought to himself his favorite saying by Ms. Frizzle from the Magic School Bus book he used to read: “Make mistakes, get messy, and learn.”

So he did just that. He put an air tank on. He went to the captain’s quarters and fired up the engine. The rocket burst and fired up into the sky. It was the first rocket in history to go into outer space without any investing. But not actually literally, of course — he had spent that five dollar allowance for the toy rocket.

When they got into outer space, all the tourists who had now become the crew held a great party. Peter somehow knew how to drive a rocket by what the tour guide told him. And the rocket soared out into the blackness. They saw stars and went right through the Milky Way. Somehow, this was not an ordinary rocket. It could go way past the moon. Since he was still excited, he drove his rocket all the way to orbit Uranus. They went back towards Earth, and made a figure eight between the sun and the earth. And then, they orbited the moon and saw what looked like another moon. As they got closer, they saw that this was no moon, but the next planet that all the computers had been sighting since 2016.

So as they got closer, they stopped right in front of a big sign, and the tourists started to go to the Captain’s Chamber and tell Peter to go back to Earth. Peter tried to keep on saying and saying and saying that he was going to find a way to get there, and it would be the best thing since nacho chips.

But as this happened, there was a big thunderstorm and a bunch of lightning in his hometown, New York. Suddenly, there was a massive updraft, and a flash of lightning went up, up, up, farther than the eye can see, out into space, and hit Peter’s rocket. There was no stopping the rocket now, as it went faster than the speed of light into the planet. He landed safely in the middle of what seemed to be another New York. It was the same horizon, just tall, tall, buildings. He knew that this was not another New York — that this was the destiny he had been waiting for all of his life.

He was welcomed greatly by a man who seemed to be the president of the whole entire planet. The president said that he had been waiting for Peter his whole entire life to tell him how these two planets could be connected into a great, big, friendly universe. The president looked like all the people there. They were like humans, but they would only be up to your knee. Kind of like Oompa Loompas from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, but a little more human-like and didn’t always have jackets on. They talked in a very high-pitched voice, but not in a bad way, as friendly as a high-pitched voice could be.

Peter and the rest of his “crew” believed this president, and the president’s idea went on to build a space bridge. It was covered, of course, by unlimited air, so no one would have to wear a spacesuit. Everyone from both planets said it was such a delight to have this great, big planet. If you were wondering, the president named the new land Herat and the city Yorkerneck. The language that these people spoke was English, and the state they were in was Yecen. There were no countries, but only continents because this was a much more friendly planet than our beloved earth.

As they started building the bridge right in between both planets and it reached the side of Earth, they could not make it go downwards because it was way too steep. But the only way to Earth was by going downwards.

They thought and thought, but then, the president said, “You could use your invention of what I think is called a bridge. No, I mean, stairs.”

This time, Peter thought it was the only idea, so he agreed. It was hard for Peter to agree sometimes because he always wanted to be the hero, as you can already see by his discovery of a new life form. The presidents and prime ministers of Earth and the president of Herat both agreed on the idea of the bridge way before this idea. Once the plan for getting to Earth had worked, they started building toward Herat. Once they had reached Herat’s atmosphere, they discovered that they needed to go faster than the speed of light to get into Herat. They thought and thought until Peter came up with an idea, like a hero, yet again.

“Why don’t we use your invention of those ball-like things, kind like odd squad portals, but they can go anywhere?”

“Great idea!” exclaimed the president.

Portals were fast balls that you squatted in that took you through holes and transported you. Once the portals had been built, a great charm shower came down to both worlds. It was totally like magic to Peter.There was a grand election of representatives in both worlds. Peter won for Earth two billion votes to none. (There were only about two billion people in the world, and children were allowed to vote.) In Herat, the president won for their side about three-quarters of their planet to one quarter. The two representatives ran the two planets fairly and were very well respected.

Since Peter was only seven (now soon to turn eight), his mother and father helped him. But it was hard, since Peter wanted him to run himself. This was not a smart choice, since kids could not think like grown-ups about all the problems in the world. With the help of two parents, two grown-ups and one child could deal with a lot of problems, while one person could only deal with about two. Three could deal with about six, which is a lot more than two when you’re dealing with crimes.

When the parents found out, they tried to speak up for themselves, but it was no use. So what they did was go to Herat, across the bridge, and tell them about this problem. The Herat people sent some police to help and say the point. The police told Earth that it would be much better if they allowed the parents to think of one thing to do.

Peter allowed this, and the parents said, “Why don’t we elect some judges for both planets, so in crime cases, we can figure out better ways of punishing people and knowing if they are innocent or guilty?”

Both planets elected a good judge that was skillful and kind to the jury and to the person put on trial. After a long time of training police, one person was finally sent to the judge on trial. The judge finally found, with the help of the jury, that the person was just expressing free speech, telling everyone that it would be better if Peter was helped by his parents.

Once he was released, more and more people thought it would be better if his parents helped him, since they were catching so few criminals and making so little changes to the Earth. This was also happening because they thought that, with the help of the jury, the judge made better decisions, so if the parents helped Peter, Peter would do better in making decisions.

While this was happening, Peter was in his capitol, which happened to be New York now. He was thinking whether he should do a little thing that was bad, just to keep him in control. This bad thing was to not let anyone have free speech of talking about something that has not happened. This was found out by the people. They found out because they were allowed to look through the little windows, and somehow, by eavesdropping with a cop, they heard him talking to himself about this new plan.

They started reporting this, and so Peter had nothing to do, but call a Grand Election to ask if he could do this law or not. A Grand Election is an election that’s not for a person or representative of state, city, or country. It’s for a law, a change to the city, state, or country. (Like if you wanted to make Yellowstone National Park bigger, you would have a Grand Election. People would vote on whether you could do this by taking out more and more buildings, or you could not do that so it would be a beautiful place, but not as big as it could be if they took out buildings.)

After this, people called for a regular election for whether Peter’s parents could help him until he became eligible in American terms for president, which is thirty five years old, and he would have to live in America for fourteen years. The people won yet again, and Peter’s parents went to help Peter with the Earth. This was a major help.

When the parents got to the White House, they asked to privately talk to Peter. They told Peter, “Until you grow up and start thinking as a grown up, we will help you. We’re not challenging you so we can be bossy, we’re not saying that we’ll help you do stuff that you don’t think that we need to do. We’re not saying that you can’t do what you want to do, we’re just saying that we’re going to do extra things that you don’t want to do.”

Peter actually liked this idea, and said, “Yes, I will.”

In his mind right now, he was not that concerned whether they stuck to their word. Out of the years he had been with them, they had never broken a promise.

After a while of this happening, Earth was so much better, that Peter started to realize that you don’t always have to be the hero. You just have to help and make decisions for everyone and be kind, which is what he had been doing for about the last three years. What had changed when his parents helped him was that there were so many other things going on that so much more things could be done and could be caught. The parents were doing things, and he was doing things that all overlapped with each other to make such good ideas, that they were better than what George Washington could do.

One thing that he couldn’t have done without his parents was that now, he had learned more about law and better laws to use. His parents told him to make a law that you couldn’t smoke. He learned more over time. He learned that help was better and better than he could ever imagine before he had ever launched that rocket.

In Herat right now, everything was better because they could use more and more of Earth’s inventions. They could help Earth, and Earth could help them. They had more parks and saw that they could have more fun running around and playing football than sitting at home and watching cartoons. The more and more that Earth and Herat shared help, the more and more inventions could be made. When more inventions are made, more things can be done.

A scanner could be made to scan if anyone anywhere had a fingerprint that they were looking for, because the scanner could go through a portal made by Herat. And the scanner that was in fact made by Earth could scan anyone’s fingerprint without them even knowing. This helped a lot. More crimes could be stopped in both worlds. It was so much more peaceful than it had once been, and finally, all crimes had been stopped. Since Peter had turned thirteen, about seven years ago, there had been no crime since. Everyone had more fun, more peace, more parks, and it was even legal to sleep outside. More and more buildings were torn down, since more and more people started sleeping outside, and all the buildings they needed were supermarkets and toy stores. And more and more parks were being made so that there was so much room for everyone, and it was negotiated so well that there was no need for fighting.

It was also like this in Herat. And more and more people crossed the bridge to see what both Earths were like and how it was so big in Earth that you would have to fly or be shipped around the earth, while in Herat, you could just walk around the planet. This was the most peace you could ever have. Even in my life, when I’m playing my favorite sport, football, I’m not having as much fun as you could ever have in this planet.