Space Fraud by Erin Sitrin

Space Fraud

by Erin Sitrin

“Jeez, I hate summer,” Shannon complained, wiping her sweat with her arm.

“It’s not that hot,” Lynn responded, pulling her long, dark brown hair into a ponytail. The two girls had decided to go out for a quick walk around their neighborhood to enjoy the warm weather.

“Hey, what’s that over there?” Shannon asked. It wasn’t hard to see what she was talking about. Down the street there was a small crowd of kids surrounding a man on a small platform. He had neat, brown hair and was wearing a white polo shirt with a small logo. He was speaking into a megaphone. As the two girls got closer, they heard some of what he was saying.

“...why, I chose this job because I love space! Just last night I was stargazing with my telescope and saw Orion and Ursa Minor!” the man said, then looked around, “If anyone has other questions, the jar is right down here!”

“What the heck is going on here? Who is this guy?” Shannon asked, frowning.

“Shhhhhh, I’m trying to listen!” a kid sitting in front of her whispered, “and ‘that guy’ is an astronomer, and he’s answering questions about space for a dollar each.”

“So he’s tricking kids into giving him money.”

The kid shook his head. “No! He’s donating it to space companies so that they can make spaceships!” Shannon rolled her eyes and looked back at Lynn. She was watching the man as he talked.

“Thank you for the questions, kiddo!” he was saying, “The sun is the brightest thing in the solar system, followed by the moon, venus, jupiter and mars, in that order. Those are the ones you’ll be able to see. And to answer your second question, if we’re going to live on anywhere else in the solar system, it’ll probably be Jupiter’s moon, Europa. Anyone else?”

Shannon nudged her friend and murmured “He’s scamming them.”

“Figured that out,” Lynn responded, turning her head slightly but keeping her eyes trained on the man.

“I’m going to ask him questions until I can prove that he’s not a real astronomer,” Shannon muttered, stepping forward. Suddenly, Lynn grabbed her by the sleeve.

“No need. He messed up already.”

Where did he go wrong?

Answer: At the beginning, Shannon mentioned that it was summer. The man claimed that he saw the constellation Orion ‘last night’. Orion is a winter constellation and it doesn’t appear in the summer.