Perfect Planets

Kyle and Brennan lounged around after school, discussing their upcoming social-studies project. “Create a perfect society?” Kyle asked. “We’ll have a great time dreaming, I suppose, but this doesn’t seem like a very practical assignment. How will this help us prepare for exams?”

“Ah, come on, humor me, let’s have some fun with this.” Brennan encouraged Kyle to indulge in one of their favorite pastimes, what if. “What if you could make a perfect planet?” he asked. “How would you describe it?”

Not waiting for an answer, Brennan rubbed his hands together in glee. “That’s easy. It would have the same appearance as Earth, with a few modifications.”

Kyle dropped the straw from a juice drink onto the floor, wrapper and all, and poured the beverage into a glass. He hunched forward, holding the drink in both hands. “Such as?”

“More oceans, gigantic mountains, and a few grass-covered hills would be a nice touch, don’t you think? Let’s include rippling creeks, mossy trees, huge ferns, massive redwoods.” Brennan resisted the urge to grab colored pencils to sketch the wonders of his world.

“People?” Kyle quirked his eyebrows characteristically, in a way Brennan had never quite been able to imitate, even though they were identical twins.

“Of course. Now let’s talk about the special properties of this planet. Snow feels warm to the touch, yet doesn’t melt too quickly.”

“Awesome.” One of Kyle’s favorite activities was inner-tubing in the snow; the more snow and the longer he could keep warm and dry, the better.

Brennan grinned. “It gets better—people on the planet don’t have accidents or get hurt, and there aren’t any diseases.” At Kyle’s skeptical glance, he continued. “No germs, no pollution.”

Kyle nodded. “Maybe our assignment should have been to make this a perfect planet.”

“Exactly!” Grabbing Kyle’s juice drink straw, Brennan aimed it toward the wastebasket. “You could start by throwing away your garbage. No pollution, remember?”