Markus and Mariana are once again glued to the windows of the Moona-Lisa, watching the Earth growing closer. And now it looks as it should, with all its continents in the right place.
Uncle Albert steers in over Europe and up toward Scandinavia and Sweden.
“This will be tricky,” he says. “I have to steer just right to land in my launch tower. My rocket garage you might call it,” he chuckles.
But the precision landing in the mansion’s tower is not entirely successful, and Uncle Albert collides with a wall. The Moona-Lisa falls the last few meters with a crash. The proud space travellers have to crawl out of a rocket that looks about ready for the junkyard.
“Poor Uncle Albert! Your wonderful spaceship, look at it,” says Mariana.
”Yes, yes, well. You take things as they come and what will be will be. We aren’t going on any more space trips any time soon, ” says Uncle Albert philosophically. “Anyway you two better be off home right away, so you aren’t late for dinner. It was at six, wasn’t it?”
Markus and Mariana look at the big clock on the wall of the rocket room. It shows five minutes to six.
“Is it really possible that it is the same day as when we left?”
“Yes of course! And if you don’t believe me now, you will when you find Rufus behind the steel door, safe and sound.”
Markus and Mariana throw themselves on the heavy door and after some pushing manage to open it. There is Rufus, barking happily and jumping at them. He seems to be just fine. But he is less happy to see Max.
”Uncle Albert, please, can’t you take care of Max? We can’t bring him home. Neither Rufus nor Mum would accept it. Not without a lot of complaining anyway.”
“Okay, I guess I’ll take care of the mouse.”
”Thanks! Now we have to run home. Thank you for a super-exciting trip. We’ll be back as soon as we can, in a day or two.”
And with those words Markus and Mariana run off with Rufus in tow. Uncle Albert and Max are left behind, eyeing each other suspiciously.
“Well I guess I’ll be stuck with you for a while then,” mutters Uncle Albert. “Come on, I’ll see if there’s some cheese left in my fridge.”
Markus and Mariana come running into their house just as the clocks strikes six.
“Just in time, I must say,” they hear their mother mutter in the kitchen. “The food is ready and on the table.”
As she enters the dining room and sees Markus and Mariana she exclaims:
”What have you done? Your clothes are filthy. There’s always something when you’ve been to Albert’s. Filthy pigs! Go put on some clean clothes and wash up before we eat.”
”Oops, maybe we should have thought of how dirty our sweaters were after all that rock-slinging,” whispers Mariana to Markus as they run up the stairs to their room.
At the dinner table their father asks if Uncle Albert had anything particular up his sleeve, or if he’d come up with some new crazy scheme during the summer.
“Naaahh. He has redone the roof of the tower,” Markus and Mariana reply innocently.
”Really? That’s unlike Albert,” says their father. Their mother gives the children a pensive look:
“What have you done with your hair? You cut it just a week ago, but it looks like it’s been a month…”
Everything grows faster in the summer…” Markus says and winks at Mariana.
Then they hungrily devour the best food they’ve had in weeks. Or was it 65 million years?
THE END