Gershwin’s trampoline trip into space

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Gershwin, and he went to a playground with all his friends. There was Bram and Nico, Orin and Tavi, and they all went to the biggest playground there ever was.

There were slides and swings and roundabouts. There was a big swinging dragon that everyone could sit on. But best of all was a ginormous castle with three massive floors.

The castle was Gershwin’s favourite. Bram liked going round and round on the roundabout. Orin loved to be swung and swung. Nobody was quite sure what Nico liked, because he just kept running around. Tavi loved the dragon.

But Gershwin was the boss. “Quick, to the castle!” he shouted, and everyone came running.

Gershwin led the way through the door and turned left. A big set of stairs went up, up, up to the first floor. There were rope bridges, bouncy steps and a bouncy bridge. They ran around, making the bridges bounce and getting their bottoms stuck between the steps. It was great fun.

Then Gershwin noticed a ginormous trampoline in the middle of the first floor. You couldn’t get onto it from there. You could only reach it from the second floor.

“Quick, up the rope stairs!” he shouted. They all ran over and climbed carefully to the second floor. There was a roundabout and a swing up there, and everyone went their own way to play.

Gershwin wasn’t happy about this, because he had a plan. He was going to become the highest trampoline bouncer anyone had ever seen. He walked to the little bridge sticking out over the trampoline, and he jumped.

He flew down from the second floor, landed on the trampoline with his bottom and bounced back up. He came down again, landed on his legs and bounced up. Then he landed on his feet and bounced even higher.

Every time he bounced, he could see further. He saw Mummy and Daddy sitting on a bench eating food. He bounced above the houses, then above the trees. On the next bounce, he could have sworn he nearly went over a plane.

He fell back down and bounced even higher. Darkness began to appear, because he was getting higher and higher and higher. Soon he was in space.

Fortunately, Gershwin was a very well-prepared little boy. He took his spacesuit out of his rucksack and put it on so he could breathe safely. Then he stopped falling and floated there.

He could see the trampoline far below and Mummy and Daddy having a drink. They knew he was safe: they had equipped him with a spacesuit.

The space station floated past. Gershwin waved, and the astronauts at its windows waved back. A satellite went past. He saw the Moon and all the planets in the distance.

Then he felt the tug of gravity pulling him back down. He couldn’t stay in space forever. He quickly took off his spacesuit and put on his parachute. As he got close to Earth, he pulled it open and sailed gently down, floating on the breeze like one of his little parachute men.

He landed right in front of the castle. All his friends were waiting, patting his back, giving him high fives and fist bumps.

“Wow, Gershwin, you are the coolest!”

It had been the best playground trip ever. They all headed home and told their friends, their families and their teachers about Gershwin’s trip into space from the playground trampoline.

And that is the story.