How can traveling through space make me older I mean I can’t even feel it If you could you’d have no skin Ivan says Atmosphere burn A lot worse than carpet burn We’re in front of my mom’s old computer googling salt for a school project We’ve watched cars race across the huge salt flats of Utah they look like fields of snow and have learned that Canadians put more salt on icy highways than they do on food Mrs Zupan hands us steaming bowls of goulash through the window Here boys Ivan takes a bite Pass the sodium chloride I hand him the saltshaker 2
We stare at the screen again The cursor flashes in the search bar as if Google is tapping its toe Throw something at me Anything Okay Google I say The microphone throbs for input Google Google churns and spits out the top results for Google It has found itself Ha Ivan says My turn Okay Google But before he can speak I sneeze Ah-choo Google hears pet chip So as Ivan and I gobble our goulash we learn about microchips the size of a grain of rice that you can get injected under your pet’s skin The chip has a code so if the animal gets lost the 3
chip company can figure out where it is Dogs cats horses snakes even rare fish get microchip implants Fish and chips I say How could a fish get lost Ivan asks Ivan is smart about smart things but not about normal things They get stolen not lost Some koi are worth more than a car Just then Ivan’s father’s car rattles into the parking lot down below Definitely more than that car I add Ivan’s car is held together with bungee cords Ivan’s dad honks Ivan grabs his backpack Thank Mrs Zupan for the galoshes And don’t forget to invite me to your orbit-completion celebration 5
