"Lunch!" Maddie called out, waving to the children.
Jazz looked over from the top of the playground tower and cheered. She sild down the slide, and ran over to her parents. Danny jumped from the swing, landing on his hands and feet, then pushed himself up and joined his sister running to the picnic table. Jack plated the sandwiches and began divvying up the sides. Maddie held out a bottle of hand sanitizer.
"Ah, this first." She chided, catching her son reaching for one of the plates. He grumbled and obliged, rubbing the cleanser she sprayed in his hands quickly— too quickly for the sanitizer to effectively clean his little fingers. He 'washed' his hands though, and that was good enough for Maddie, who just wanted their children to build good hygiene habits as they aged.
"Thank you for preparing this, Mads."
"Thank you, momma."
"Thank you, mom."
They ate together, laughing and talking, enjoying the summer sun. In a few weeks their youngest child would be starting kindergarten— while the couple was so proud to see their children grow and succeed, reaching the milestones set before them, the joy was bittersweet as they prepared to have the house quiet again for most of the weekdays.
A small plane flew low above them, the noisy engine catching everyone's attention. It was the closest Danny had seen before, and he tried to memorize every detail in a few seconds, mesmerized by the spin of the propeller and the lights on the wings.
"That's a Skyhawk— must be headed to the north runway."
"How do you know?" Jazz asked.
"Those wee planes normally land on the west runway; there must be strong wind currents up there today for the north runway to be open. Or the plane is running emergency drills— they do that during flight training."
"Can we fly?"
"We could take a trip, I suppose. We haven't visited my sister in a few years."
"I'd rather our kids didn't learn to skydive just yet, Maddie." Jack grumbled, hiding the real reason he was against that idea. Maddie rolled her eyes.
"No, I want to fly like the birds."
Danny climbed off the bench and put his hands out like wings, running around them, chirping. Jazz stuck her nose up, making a face at her brother.
"Humans can't fly, Danny."
"Then I'll be a scientist like mom and dad and make wings so I can fly!"
"I'm sure you will, Danno. Until then, we can learn about planes and watch them at the local airfield. There's a great breakfast place down there next to the museum and training school."
"Can we really?"
"Sure." Maddie smiled, climbing out of the picnic bench to chase the boy. "We can do it weekly."
Danny tapped his sister on her shoulder. "Tag! Your it!"
He and their mother ran towards the playground; Jazz followed, as Jack watched on with pride.
Twenty minutes later the family packed up and climbed into the Ghost Assault Family Van, headed home for the afternoon. The couple had work to finish, while the children napped. As Jack pulled out out the parking lot, Danny watched another plane drop its landing gear, flying only a few thousand feet above them.
"Space is above the sky, right?"
"Yes?"
"Then the solar system? Like that movie?"
"That's right, Danno."
"What's above the solar system?"
"Lots of things, kiddo. There's a whole, expansive universe filled with other planets and stars, and galaxies like the one our solar system is in."
"Are there planets like Earth? And other humans?"
"It's not impossible. But the likelihood of finding a planet exactly like ours is slim. NASA's been looking for years."
"NASA?"
"America's space exploration program. They train scientists and astronauts on the space sciences, or aerospace engineering and aeronautics."
"What do astronauts do?"
"They fly space shuttles and rocket ships into space to explore and run scientific tests."
"They fly higher then airplanes?"
"Yes they do."
"I wanna fly all the way to space. I'll be the first person to Saturn!"
"Saturn, huh? You have to do a lot of math and science then in school. And take flying lessons."
"I'll do all of it! I'll be a super astronaut!"
Danny put his hand against the window waving it in-front of the clouds like a plane.
"That's the ticket, kiddo— Family of Geniuses, the Fentons!" Jack said, looking back at his son.
"Jack, that's a stop sign."
"Jazz, what are you gonna do?" Danny asked, leaning forward in his car seat. The girl looked at him, squishing her face in thought.
"I'm gonna be a doctor and make shots that don't hurt."
"That's sounds like a lot of math and science too."
"Yea, but I'll give you good shots before you go flying. Then, you won't ever get sick."
"That's really nice." He nodded. "I'll bring you a special space rock."
Their parents smiled humorously in the front seats.
"You're right, Jack. Family of Geniuses."
