Astronaut

Chapter Ten: Football Games and Book Brawls

The following morning, Harvey opens his heavy eyelids and tries to wake himself up. He sits himself up and takes the covers off himself and swings his legs to the left-hand side of his bed and jumps off it, he grabs his book on Mercury with the dog-eared page that he was reading last night and takes it over to his bookshelf and puts it in between his Richard Feynman and Albert Einstein books. He goes over to his record player and takes the lid off, he goes over to his record shelf and selects his second favourite album, the 1965 LP Help! He takes the record out of its sleeve and goes over to his record player and places the record onto the turntable and gets the needle to place onto the record and presses play for it to start spinning and the titular song starts playing and Harvey begins to sing along with his favourite Beatle.

"Help! I need somebody
Help! Not just anybody
Help! You know I need someone
Help!

(When) When I was younger (When I was young) so much younger than today
(I never need) I never needed anybody's help in any way"

Harvey goes over to his chest of drawers and opens his second drawer where his T-shirts and some sports jerseys are and selects his New England Patriots jersey, he moves onto the next drawer down and gets out a pair of blue jeans, he then moves onto the bottom drawer and pulls it open to reveal some jumpers and hoodies. He picks up his yellow and black Boston Bruins hockey jumper to wear. He takes the clothes over to his bed and puts them down, he goes over to his bedside cabinet again and opens the top drawer to take out pants and then moves down to the bottom drawer to take out socks. He takes his underwear over to his bed and beside his laid-out outfit for today; he starts to get out of his pyjamas and into his clothes. Once dressed, he tosses his pyjamas, pants and socks into the heap at his door, then goes into his cupboard to fetch his all-white Converse sand shoes, he sits himself down on the edge of his bed with shoes in hand and places them in front of his feet. He picks up the left shoe and slips it onto the correct foot, he tries to remember how his dad tied his shoes yesterday so, he picks up the two shoelaces and pulls them together to tighten them. He keeps ahold of them, crosses the two ends together, pulls to tighten, then takes the left lace to make the beginnings of a loop, he uses his right hand to make the loop whilst his left-hand holds the lace, once making the loop he gets the loose right lace and puts it over the loop he made and tucks it under the crossed knot he made earlier, he then pulls the two loops through to finish. He stares at his tied shoe in awe, pleased with himself at what he's managed to achieve.

"Yes! I can finally tie my shoelaces!" He shouts whilst jumping off his bed to stand, he sits back down again and picks up the right shoe to go onto his other foot; he manages to tie the laces the same way as he'd done before. With both of his shoes tied, he makes his way over to the en suite bathroom that he shares with his siblings and goes over to the sink to get his red toothbrush from the toothbrush holder, turns the cold tap on, runs the bristles under the water, takes ahold of the tube of toothpaste that's sitting beside the toothbrush holder and also a comb; he pops open the toothpaste and squeezes it so that some of it will come out, he puts a small amount onto his toothbrush, puts the brush into his mouth with his right hand and with his left hand he pops the cap back onto the toothpaste tube with a click and puts it back beside the holder and comb. He starts to brush his teeth. When he's finished, he turns the cold tap off and puts his toothbrush back beside the five different coloured ones, he picks the comb up and places it on the top of his head and begins to drive it forward to comb his dry and messy hair. After doing so, he puts the comb back where it belongs and comes out of the bathroom and back into his bedroom, he shuts the bathroom door behind him and then makes his way over to his record player that is playing the track Ticket to Ride, he presses the stop button and the record stops abruptly, he takes the needle off the record and then the record off the turntable and places it back into its sleeve. He puts the lid onto his record player and picks up Help! And takes it over to his record shelf and places it in between A Hard Day's Night and Rubber Soul, he goes over to his bed and begins to make it. He lifts his pillow and props it up against the headboard, then lifts his messy quilt covers and positions them neatly on top of the bedsheet; he then grabs his Red Sox cap from the bottom of his bed and places it on his head. He goes over to his window and opens his still-closed blinds, he goes over to his room door, picks up the small pile of clothes and opens the door to take himself into the hallway. He shuts his bedroom door behind him and goes across the hall to his parent's room to see if they can tell him where his clothes from last night are to go. But before he can reach his destination, he spots Agent O'Donnell in the hallway on his right side, he walks up to him with his bundle of dirty clothes in his arms and asks: