Question and Answer Session from
Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli

Overview
Dialogue from - Smiles to Go - by Jerry Spinelli (PAGE 25-28)
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Overview

The following dialogue is from - Smiles to Go by Jerry Spinelli.

Notice the style and tone in which Mr. Sigfried and Will Tuppence talk about a current event - the death of a proton.

The dialogue (PAGE 25-28)

Third period.

Physics.

Mr. Sigfrie.

Finally, somebody to share the proton news with.

The teacher leaned back against the desk, arms folded. "Ok, people-there was big news over the weekend. Something happened that will cause textbooks to be rewritten. Who would like to tell us what I'm referring to?"

My hand was already up when Jamie Westphal blurted. "Anthony Bontempo skateboarded down Dead Man's Hill!"

Hoots, whistles, cheers, standing ovation—and BT wasn't even in the class. Even Mr.
Sigfie gave him a little piny clap. Then he called on me.

I waited for total silence and said, "Proton decay. It's confirmed."

He snapped a finger at me. "Give that man a prize. And what exactly does that mean, Mr. Tuppence? Proton decay."

"It means nothing in the universe will last."

He went into mock shock. "Nothing?"

"Nothing."

"How so, Mr. Tuppence?"

"Because everything is made of protons. And now we know that even protons don't last forever. Therefore everything will disappear."

"The planets, too? They're going to disappear?"

"Yep."

"The stars?"

"Yep."

"My aunt Tilly's teapot?"

"Yep." I was enjoying this.

He gazed out the window. "And when is this great disappearing going to happen, Mr.
Tuppence?"

"Long time from now."

"Long time? Like a year from now?"

I snickered. "Way longer."

Jamie Westphal piped up, "So, how long?"

Mr. Sigfried gave me a palms-up stop sign.

"Let me answer that one, Mr. Tuppence. It's kinda fun." He turned to the blackboard and chalked a 1 in the upper-left corner and began writing zeroes and commas across the whole board. And across the board again. And again. He must have gone on for a full five minutes before he plunked the chalk down, stepped aside and gestured at the board covered with the most colossal number any of us had ever
seen. "That"—he grinned—"many years."

"Zowiel" somebody said.

Somebody whistled.

Somebody farted.

The class cracked up. Mr. Sigfried wagged his head and began erasing the board. "OK, people." he said, "back to earth, Today we consider" - He lettered the rest on the dusty blackboard:

THE WONDERS OF WATER

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