Auggie & Me: Pluto

Contemporary observations are changing our understanding of planetary systems, and it is important that our nomenclature for objects reflect our current understanding.

This applies, in particular, to the designation “planets.” The word “planet” originally described “wanderers” that were known only as moving lights in the sky. Recent discoveries lead us to create a new definition, which we can make using currently available scientific information.

When we were almost next, the little girl in front of us got cold feet about going down the tall slide, so she turned around to let us pass.

“She was destined for us.”

“Do you get it, Auggie? Darth...maul? Get it? Because dogs maul...”

“She was sick.”
“What, so they put her to sleep?” I asked, incensed. “How could they do that?”

“Thanks for waking me up with really bad news, by the way,” I said sarcastically.

“To tell him how sorry you are about Daisy. To pay your condolences. Because he’s your best friend.”

“They’re our friends. Isabel is my good friend, just like Auggie is your good friend. And when good friends need us, we do what we can to help them, right? We can’t just be friends when it’s convenient. Good friendships are worth a little extra effort!”

I mean, seriously, it was like Ms. Medina was suddenly talking in a made-up language that everyone else in class seemed to understand but me. Gadda badda quotient. Patta beeboo divisor.

The other three guys in the band were Ennio, who plays the drums and is considered to be this prodigy drummer, Harry on lead guitar, and Elijah on bass guitar.

And then we’d make suggestions about what songs we could play. So far, we had suggested “Yellow Submarine” and “Eye of the Tiger.” But Elijah, Harry, and Ennio had nixed them both.

“That sounded awesome!” said John when it was over. He held his hand in the air to high-five me, which I did a little reluctantly.

Mr. B looked at his watch. “Whoa, it’s five-thirty? Oh man! Dudes, I’ve got a gig tonight. We have to wrap this up. Let’s go. Everything in the lock room.”

Apparently, the rain caused some flooding on the parkway, and a construction truck hit a ditch, and Mom swerved to avoid hitting it but then got sideswiped by the car in the left lane.

I heard my mom and Isabel talking about the surgery in their quiet voices, which they used when they didn’t want me or Auggie to hear what they were saying. Something about "complications” and how it had been “touch and go” for a while.

I thought of the big empty red hole on the boy’s face. The jagged flap of skin.

My mom, meanwhile, was frantically wiping the floor with a newspaper.

By now, I was sweating profusely.

Dad got behind the wheelchair.
“Wait, can I push her?” I said to Dad, grabbing one of the handles.
“Let me just get her out the door here,” answered Dad. “It’s a little hard to maneuver with her leg.”

“Chris, now’s not the time,” said Dad, giving me a stern look in the rearview mirror.

The understanding that Pluto is only one of several large icy bodies in the outer solar system prompted the International Astronomical Union (IAU) to formally define “planet” in 2006.

“I promise you. What happened today was just an accident. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was a fluke. Okay?”

When something scary like this happens, it acts like a wake-up call, you know? It makes us reassess what’s important in life.

That’s what I felt like after talking to Auggie. Like this colossal mystery I couldn’t understand before was now completely, suddenly solved.