This time Priya got to the rocket ship first. She was sitting cross-legged on top of the tires, though, instead of crawling inside of them.
“You were just disintegrated upon reentry, astronaut,” I said.
She made a face. “I can’t stay long. My mom is making me go to some sleepover at my cousin’s tonight. Where’s Tripp?”
“He said he’d be here,” I said.
Just then we saw something moving toward us in the distance. Priya shaded her eyes with her hand. “Is that …?”
“Tripp? On a bike?” I finished.
Sure enough, the object got closer to us, wobbling and weaving but miraculously staying upright, Tripp balanced on the seat as if this was no big deal.
Priya jumped off the tires. “This is a big deal,” she said.
Exactly. Tripp hadn’t ridden a bike in years. His mom said the health insurance wouldn’t cover him anymore if he went anywhere near a wheel again. Or a bonfire. Or most swimming pools and some sidewalks.
“Hey, guys!” Tripp called, waving grandly. The bike trembled from the motion. Priya made a small noise and clapped her palm over her eyes.
“I can’t watch,” she said. “Let me know when the funeral is.”
But he stayed up, pedaled over to us, and eased to a stop.
“What’s new?” he asked. He climbed off the bike and stood, his posture so upright he looked like someone had hung his shirt on a hook with him still in it.
“You’re riding a bike, that’s what’s new,” Priya said.
“This old thing?” Tripp said nonchalantly.
I gave his shoulder a poke. “Why are you standing like that?” I asked.
“Like what?”
“Like you’re having your height measured.” I poked again. He barely moved.
“I’m not standing any different than I normally stand. Sheesh.” He climbed up on a tire and immediately slid off backward, landing in the pea gravel on the other side.
“Never mind,” I said.
“So what’s the scoop on the zombie next door?” Tripp asked, trying again to get on the tire.
“You’re not going to believe this, but his name is Cash Maddux. The Cash Maddux.”
They looked at me blankly.
“Cash Maddux, the astronaut.”
“No way!” Tripp breathed. “A real space man? Like Luke Skywalker?”
“Well, I don’t actually know if he’s ever gone to space,” I said. “The flight suit looks pretty clean.”
Priya made a face. “So was he, like, mission control or something?”
“I don’t know,” I said, and it occurred to me right then that I really wanted to find out.
“Can I just point out,” Priya said, sticking her finger up into the air, “that, one, he is not a zombie, and, two, I told you so.”
“Just because he’s an astronaut doesn’t mean he’s not also a zombie,” Tripp responded, and, for once, he seemed to have a point because Priya didn’t argue.
“So he’s normal?” Tripp asked.
“I told you so,” Priya said.
I thought about how hard Cash laughed when he scared the egg salad out of me … and then picked it up and ate it. “I don’t know if I would say normal.”
“I want to see it,” Tripp said. “The space room, I mean.”
“Yeah, me too,” Priya said. “Ask him if we can come sometime, too.”
I was torn. On one hand, Tripp and Priya were my best friends, and I wanted to share my amazing discovery with them. But on the other hand, I was afraid to tell Cash when his shoe was untied, much less ask him to let my friends in his house. Cash didn’t strike me as someone who would love a seventh-grade dance party invading his space.
But I would be moving away soon, and I wanted to spend every moment I could with my friends.
“Okay, I’ll ask him,” I said. “Sometime soon.”
Tripp and Priya cheered, and we all raced to the tornado slide where we had rock races until it was time for Priya to go home.
After she left, I got out my bike and Tripp and I rode around the neighborhood until it got too dark to see.