Clues to the Universe

Benji laments how his best friend, Amir, recently moved to Connecticut, leaving Benji with nobody to talk to. Benji is passionate about space and comic books, particularly a series called Spacebound. He spends his class time illustrating, and he meets Ro on her first day. Ro sits in the empty seat beside Benji and Benji accidentally knocks her water over on his drawings. Ro tries to apologize, but Benji only mumbles a brief reply and scurries off in a hurry, leaving his comic book behind. Benji panics when he realizes his comic is missing because he believes the Spacebound comics are the key to finding his father.

Ro thinks about how many things in life have set instructions that produce reliable results; however, she finds that making friends is not one of these things, even though her dad always said it only takes a smile. Ro tries to befriend a girl named Charlotte at school, but she mistakes her politeness for friendship. She later overhears Charlotte making fun of her and questioning what race she must be. Like a scientist, Ro makes observations of the world around her and finds that Charlotte’s politeness was fake.

At home, Ro visits with her mother and organizes the towels, as she finds that organizing keeps her calm. Since her father died, Ro’s family has been surviving off a single income; while they are getting by, many of the luxuries she was used to before, like private school, are gone. Ro keeps a box of her dad’s belongings, including a magazine, an empty cigarette carton, some cuff links, a hat, a picture of her parents, a poem by Walt Whitman called “When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer,” and some film. She opens the box and thinks about the day the Voyager launched, remembering how thrilled her father was about the thought of human artifacts being launched into space.

Ro looks at the half-built rocket that she and her father started, with its body complete but none of its interior mechanisms yet built, and it occurs to her that she could use the rocket to launch her father’s treasures into space. Ro’s dad always wanted to be an astronaut, and this is one way of fulfilling that dream in a sense. Now, Ro needs to figure out a way to get the parts she needs.

Benji gets picked up by his older brother Danny, who always seems to have an easy time in life. Danny is popular and wears his varsity jacket everywhere he goes. He asks Benji how the first day of school went, and Benji gives a short reply, mentioning how he likes art class but is worried that their mom is going to start getting strict about his grades. Benji goes with Danny to his job at the general store, which is run by Mr. Voltz, an elderly man who likes few people. He likes Danny and Benji because their mother is kind to him, and Benji often hangs out at the store during Danny’s shifts. Mr. Voltz often lets Benji look at the store’s comics, as long as he doesn’t damage them. Today, Benji looks at Ro’s folder, which got mixed up with his own, and discovers drawings and physics calculations that he doesn’t really understand.

In science class the next day, Benji and Ro exchange their folders, and the teacher announces an upcoming science fair. Benji thinks back to when he met Amir during a science class after Amir’s family first immigrated to the United States from Iran. Amir fainted when they had to dissect a chicken wing. He and Amir had a lot in common, aside from the fact that Amir was more polished and organized while Benji was more of a free spirit. Amir was with Benji when he found one of his dad’s old drawings in the garage, and Amir commented that it looked just like the comic Spacebound. This discovery made Benji believe that his father writes the comics, and he began using them to try and figure out where his dad is.

Later on, Ro comes into the store to buy some supplies for her rocket. Benji summons the courage to ask Ro whether she’s building a radio, and Ro answers that it’s actually a rocket.

In the following science class, the students are tasked with building Rube Goldberg machines, or marble contraptions. As Benji and Ro work together to make Ro’s sketch a reality, they discuss Benji’s drawings and map of the country. Ro is curious rather than judgmental, which Benji appreciates, and he admits that the map is meant to help him figure out where his father is. Benji explains that he thinks his dad writes the comics and that he hasn’t heard from his dad in years. Benji fits the final piece of the machine together, and the marble glides smoothly through it,

Ro knows that “scientists like uncovering secrets” (48), and her mother always tells her that she got her inclination toward science from her dad. Ro remembers her dad as always being curious, wanting to observe and understand everything around him, and Ro is the same way. When Benji told Ro that he wanted to find his father, Ro thought of it as another secret to uncover. She thinks about her own father’s death, which was the result of a drunk driver; while she can never fully understand why he died so young and so suddenly, she can help Benji find clarity in his own life.

In science class the next day, Ro announces her plan to help Benji, who initially reacts by being coy and understating his desire to find his dad. Ro comes prepared with paper ready to create a plan together and explains that she likes figuring out the answers to problems. Benji finally agrees, but only if he can help Ro with her rocket because he desperately needs the extra credit from the science fair. Ro and Benji shake on their new deal, and Benji tells Ro to start reading Spacebound comics.