...In just two days, a teacher would show us around the space shuttle, just like you show someone new around your house. She would teach school from space! But today she would be going up to get her classroom ready.

The NASA Channel showed pictures of Challenger sitting on the launch pad. We sat close together on the big green rug. Our teacher stood behind us smiling and rubbing her hands together. I think she was as excited as we were. Others who worked at the school watched, too. The numbers on the screen told us countdown was near.

At last it came. We all counted, 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1...Ignition...Lift off!!! It was beautiful to watch the shuttle leave the ground. It seemed like slow motion at first. I pushed up on my knees for a better look. Such power! Everyone clapped, just like they do at NASA. Our teacher was clapping, too. But then it got quiet. Everyone just got very quiet. Especially the grownups.

My teacher wasn't clapping now. Her hands were together. We watched the screen. The shuttle was in a cloud. Now two other clouds formed the shape of a scorpion on the TV screen. We listened, but the voice had stopped talking. When he did start talking again, everyone knew something terrible had gone wrong. We could see what looked like rain falling from the clouds. Our teacher was crying now. In a minute, another teacher came over to give her a hug. Then our teacher sat on her knees with us and said we must all give each other a hug. Hug anyone, she said, but hug someone. She said she was sorry for what had happened. Some of the children cried, too. It was the saddest day I've ever had in school. Our teacher said it was a day to be brave. The astronauts were very brave, and we must be brave, too. They would want us to be. She said we must never let fear take away our dreams.

The rest of the day seemed foggy and not quite real. On the playground, things were pretty quiet. I remember hearing one of the children say that Christa's spirit just kept going up—even when the shuttle was going down.

Later, we sat together and talked. We talked about the families of the astronauts. Branham told everyone he felt sad that Christa’s children would have to stay just with their father for the rest of their lives. He said it was sad for their grandma and grandpa, too. Joshua said he felt sad that her son misses her so much.

“It’s hard for her husband to be mommy and daddy,” Katie said.

“I think it’s very sad when people die,” Mattie whispered.

“I’m sorry that the pilots died,” Joshua added.

“Some of the children are only going to have mommies now, and two of the children are only going to have a daddy," said Nathan.

Jeremiah told us he thought their kids would be very sad at night when they have to go to bed.

But then Nathan said, “I think there should still be spaceships, because they tell us what's happening in space.”

And Katie was sure another teacher would go into space. “Christa is watching up there and she doesn't want us to be sad. Sometimes other people want to go up in space and accidents don’t happen. But sometimes they do.”

That night we saw it all happen again and again on TV. The President had a special message for children. Like Katie, he said that sometimes terrible things happen. “The future doesn’t belong to the fainthearted,” he said. “It belongs to the brave.”

The next morning when we said the Pledge of Allegiance, the flag flew at half mast. It flew that way for a week. One day for each of the astronauts, I thought.

Soon after class started, we took the clippers up to the fir tree on the big playground and each of us got a sprig. We came back to class and sat in a circle around the rug. Our teacher used a coat hanger that she had made round. One by one, each of us placed the sprig on the hanger and wrapped it tight with old telephone wire to make a wreath. When we finished, the teacher tied a thick black bow around the hook. She added a thin strip of red, white, and blue ribbon and hung the wreath around Christa's picture on the door. The needles on the wreath felt soft. The room smelled like Christmas again....

We wrote stories and drew pictures. Most of us just said how sad we were about what happened, but we took a long time with the pictures and our teacher kept telling us how beautiful they were. Joshua drew a picture of Challenger that looked almost real....

When the winter rains stopped, we walked to the bottom of the school road. We brought the wreath with us. A helicopter had already dropped a wreath in the Atlantic Ocean as part of a special ceremony for the astronauts and their families. We would try to get ours to float to the Pacific Ocean. We crossed the highway and took a path through the redwoods to the river. The water ran swiftly now because of the heavy rains.

We stood on the bank above and passed the wreath around to feel and smell it. The soft freshness was gone now. It had started to dry. But it still had its piney smell.

The river was too swift for us to go close. Our teacher carried the wreath and climbed down the bank. We stood above not saying anything while she got her feet steady and her hands ready to throw. At that moment, someone, no one knows who, said in almost a whisper: “ten,” and just as softly, the whole class said, “nine...eight...seven...six...five...four...three...two...one,” and the wreath left her hands, sailed through the air and was sent racing down the river toward the Pacific Ocean. We could see the black bow in the distance.

It’s almost Arbor Day now. To honor the seven astronauts, we plan to plant seven redwood trees in a circle on the playground. Someday our children can sit between those same trees to keep out the blazing Indian Summer sun. Who knows, they might even pretend they're in a space shuttle orbiting the earth.

Much time has passed, but we still draw spaceships, and build them out of all sorts of wood blocks and plastic bricks. We follow directions, and we change designs. We make them work. Soon people will be out in space building big space stations with bricks and blocks much like these. So we build and study. We want to be ready. Space is part of our life now. Part of our future