Venitia Burney, who named Pluto at 11 yrs old

by Lisa Shattuck

My cataracts can’t see anymore. (She places seeds in her nostrils.)
I can’t smell, because I am putting one pomegranate seed in each nostril. I summon the God of the Underworld.
I am still on Earth. My Very Earth…
Sadly we are so well lit that only the brightest stars really get a look-in, unless we have a power outage…of course! I summon a power outage. (She pops her fists over ach other in the air to represent the planets.) Mother Just Served….
I visualize a tiny little heavenly body, a small ball of ice, so cold, 212 degrees below.
I offer my formal apology. I’m sorry I never saw you so here I am coming to you now. I will feel you through my space suit and my gravity boots. I was waiting for humans to master time and space …but it’s taking too long. No faith in machines. They tried to show me Venetia the Asteroid.
What I saw was thick eyelashes flapping. I told them, “Look, it happened over breakfast when I was eleven…” and then I didn’t think of you for 67 years until they sent me the letters all at once and the Venitia Burney, the measuring device. It measures particles in space. I summon my particles into space.
Us Nine Potatoes!
Ok, take away my 12th month, give me a 6 day week and 3 seasons a year! I feel my ice toes ankles and knees. You are steel grey with flapping lashes. My lovely ball of ice that holds me now like a proud child and I the guilty parent. You are fire to me now. I did think of you once in the 67 years. I told my fiancé I had named Pluto and then my marriage didn’t happen. That was my big mistake. I won’t let them make theirs. My very eager mother just served us nine potatoes.