Chapter 8

CHAPTER 8 Dr. Crisp clicked her heels and the light returned. She walked over to Pablo. "Is everything okay here, Makers?" asked Dr. Crisp. Pablo paused. And then sighed. He wiped away a tear and finally replied, "I don't think I'm smart enough to be an astronaut." Dr. Crisp gasped and put her hand to her chest. "Pablo, why would you think something like that?

Of course you're smart enough to be an astronaut! You're smart enough to become anything you want." "But I can't even remember the difference between asteroids and comets," Pablo continued. He wiped away another tear. "I don't know how black holes work, either. And I probably won't know anything about whatever we'll learn in level three." He put his hands in his pockets and hung his head again. "That's okay, Pablo." Dr. Crisp knelt to look him in the eye. "The Maker Maze is all about having fun and learning. Figuring stuff out!" Pablo shook his head. "You don't understand, Dr. Crisp. Back in Puerto Rico, mis primos would tell me that I would only become an astronaut because my head was always in the clouds. My parents said to ignore them. But it's hard. And it makes me feel bad." Then he looked at Violet and Deepak. "When I kept messing up on the challenges, I felt like I was letting you down."

"But, Pablo," said Violet, "you're the smartest person I know!" "Yeah," added Deepak. "You always have such good ideas. Remember, you figured out level three last time we all were here!" "I'm so sorry your cousins would say those things to you," said Dr. Crisp. "It's not very nice.

And it also is not true. You will become an astronaut, Pablo. Do you want to know how I know that?" Dr. Crisp asked. Pablo nodded slowly. "Because you never give up," said Dr. Crisp with a warm smile. "Not even when we only have thirty-five minutes left and still need to finish level two!" Pablo smiled. Dr. Crisp was right. I'm not a quitter, he thought. "Thanks, Dr. Crisp. I promise to never, ever give up." Then he looked down at his watch. His eyes grew wide. "Wait, you weren't kidding! We only have thirty-five minutes left in this challenge!"

"Sorry to burst your bottle rocket, but yes!" replied Dr. Crisp. She clicked her heels and the lights turned off again. "Uh-oh," said Deepak. "It's okay," said Pablo. "We can get this done." "I think we got a little ahead of ourselves before," said Violet.

Pablo agreed. "Yeah, I was trying to guess how black holes work before figuring out what they do to dark energy." "Let's look at the sheet again," Deepak suggested. The Makers inspected it carefully. "How about we list everything we can observe and see if we get any ideas?" said Pablo. Violet bent over and carefully studied the glowing sheet. "Whoa, I didn't pay attention to this before. But the model black hole must be pretty heavy. It's making the space fabric sag! A lot!" "Excellent eyes!" said Dr. Crisp, raising her eyebrows up and down. "Oh wow," said Deepak.