This Place Has No Atmosphere by Paula Danziger Read Free Book Online

long lavender dress, with charm necklaces draped all the way to her waist. It’s impossible to tell what all the charms are, but somehow I know that each one was specially chosen and that there’s a great story about each of them. She also has different-color gemstones going up her multipierced earlobes.
    She looks really terrific and different. It’s great to see someone so original.
    Buzz joins our group and tells us that April has won a nationwide essay contest and is the only person who will be staying for just one year.
    Maybe I’ll be able to go back the same time that she does. Then the trip back won’t be so all alone.
    Salvador Arply speaks next. He’s this really weird-looking guy who has braided eyebrows and will be creating moon sculptures on a grant from the Universe Endowment of the Arts. “During the first years, most of the people sent to the moon were scientists, construction workers, miners, and manufacturers. Next came the support people—the families, the teachers. Now it’s time for the arts. So here I am—to create, to teach.”
    I wonder whether actors will be sent to the moon.
    Next, Buzz looks in my direction.
    I look around.
    It’s me.
    I’m next.
    People are looking at me. Unless I’m on stage, that makes me nervous.
    “Aurora Williams. My father’s a dentist. My mother’s a doctor. I have a younger sister, Starr.”
    “But who are
you?
Surely you are more than just a part of your family.” Buzz sounds like one of my old psychology teachers.
    I look around at the group. How can I tell these strangers who I am when I don’t really know that myself?
    It’s so hard.
    Where are the Turnips when I need them?
    I hope April doesn’t think I’m a blobbrain or anything.
    Buzz doesn’t give up. “How do you feel about going to the moon?”
    “My parents want to go,” I say.
    “And you?” He continues.
    Why do some grown-ups think they have the right to make kids tell everything in front of everyone?
    I’d really like to say something like “They’re making me go,” but then maybe CAMP would tell us that it has to be voluntary and that I have a bad attitude and the family can’t go. I can’t let that happen. Last night my parents and I talked again and I promised to really try for them. I have to stick to it. I’m almost fourteen years old and that’s really too young to leave home. Even though I want to sometimes, the thought of that is kind of frightening.
    Buzz insists. “And what about you?”
    “I go too. We’re a package deal.” I smile at him.
    He nods and turns to the next person.
    As the rest of the group introduce themselves, I think about how scary it would really be to leave myparents and how scary it is to be leaving my friends and the life that I have always known.
    Sitting in a group of over one hundred people, I suddenly feel very alone.

CHAPTER 12

    I look at the comment on my test paper, which Buzz has just returned.
    If my last initial were S, I’m not sure I’d like to have a nickname that begins with B.
    “Now we’re going to show you some historical filmfootage, and then we’ll be giving you a tour of the space shuttle simulator,” Buzz informs us.
    One of the construction workers raises his hand. “How come we have to go through all this? Why can’t we just go up to the moon right away? We don’t need all this historical and scientific information to live and work someplace. I spent thirty years in Altoona without knowing much about it.”
    Buzz says, “The time here is important. It’s not as if you’re going to be moving to a familiar environment on this planet. You’ll have to get used to new conditions, be prepared to live under an environmental shield and have the commitment to stay on the moon for at least five years under conditions that you won’t be used to. CAMP is the chance to train for that life. It’s also the chance for you and for us to make the final decision about whether moon life will be right for you.”
    I look