We were studying the planets in science. I memorized their order, loving mostly how they each seemed to know exactly where they belonged. When I finally stopped rocking, I went inside the Laundromat and took a seat in front of a row of dryers, watching the clothes whirl and turn. I pretended that I was an astronaut. I imagined what it would feel like to spin around on Saturn’s rings, riding faster and faster through the black air. A voice that took me a few minutes to recognize broke me out of my dream: the man who had chased away the girls in front of the convenience store.

“Want some?” He opened his hand, exposing a fist full of M&Ms, but I shook my head. He dropped them into his mouth and they crackled as they mashed against his teeth. When he finished, he wiped his hand down the length of his thigh. “Is your mother here?”

Again, I shook my head. My stomach started to growl and I wondered if I should have taken him up on his candy offer. I looked at the vending machine and tried to remember how much change was floating around the inside of my backpack.

“You do the laundry to help her out.”

I wasn’t sure if it was a statement or a question so I just shrugged. He handed me the bag of candy and this time I took some. I ate two at a time, sucking them slowly so that I didn’t have to bite into the crunchy coating covering the chocolate.

“I used to help my dad out.” The man’s arms were brown and skinny and covered with silver fuzz that looked like dust balls. “One time he was doing some work on the roof. I told him not to. I told him it was dangerous. But he didn’t listen to me.”

He dropped the last few candies into his hand and then folded the empty bag into a long skinny rectangle. I waited for him to finish the story. To tell me what happened. But he didn’t. He popped the chocolates into his mouth and picked up the newspaper and started to read.

I unzipped the pocket in my backpack, took out some change, and walked over to the vending machine. Uncertain as to what a real astronaut would choose, I decided on a bag of pretzels and slowly punched in the code, holding my breath as a big metal ring turned and dropped the bag down. Back at my seat, I sucked the pretzels until they turned to mush in my mouth. The man was gone. He left his newspaper on the seat next to me.