(flash story)

Tommy was eight years old and loved everything about space. His room was full of star maps, planet pictures, and space books. His most special thing was his telescope — a birthday gift from his grandfather.

Every night, Tommy would sit by his bedroom window and look at the stars through his telescope. He knew all the constellations and could find the moon easily.

One clear evening, Tommy was looking through his telescope as usual. He pointed it at the dark sky, searching for striking things to see. Suddenly, he saw something very strange. There, floating in space, was a big yellow banana.

“What?” Tommy said out loud. He rubbed his eyes and looked again. The banana was still there, hanging in the black space between the stars.

Tommy couldn’t believe his eyes. He had read many books about space, but none of them mentioned space bananas. Maybe he discovered something new. Maybe he would be famous?

He ran to his parents’ room, very excited. “Mom! Dad! Come here! There’s a banana in space! I can see it through my telescope!”

His parents looked at each other and smiled. They followed Tommy back to his room. His father looked through the telescope and started laughing.

“Tommy,” his dad said – “look out your window without the telescope.”

Tommy looked outside. There, hanging from the streetlight pole right outside his window, was a yellow banana. His neighbor had hung it there to feed the birds in the morning.

Tommy felt embarrassed but also happy. Even though he didn’t discover a space banana, he learned something important: sometimes things are not what they seem. The telescope made the banana look like it was far away in space, but it was actually very close to his house.

From that night on, Tommy always checked carefully before getting too excited about his space discoveries.