FIRM SIGNS

By Ben Greenman

from forthcoming collection, as yet untitled

The amazing quest of the quartet of eleven-year-olds in the flat fields of Gretna, Nebraska, is nearing its close. At any moment there may be dramatic and thrilling developments. A disused refrigerator carton which recently disgorged a sheet of bubble wrap, an instruction book, and assorted documentation was turned on its side, following a startling theory devised by two of the four that any craft of their invention can speed across the galaxy and back while appearing not to have moved at all. The inventors discovered this principle while pretending to be the fastest people in the world, announcing that they were about to run all the way around the globe and back to their original spot, after which they simply stood still. The ship is docked near a picnic pavilion, the largest in the park. It has not been used all day, although there are firm signs that suggest that a picnic is coming. One boy about the same age of the intergalactic voyagers is carrying in bags of chips and packs of buns, and when the grown-ups arrive the pilots confidently expect to smell meat grilling.