I’ve met a lot of folks during my daily five-to-seven-mile walks, but rarely one who said something I’ll never hear again: “I stopped the Earth! I stopped the Earth!”

That was said by Athena, a third-grade student on her way to elementary school. From a distance, I could see she was struggling to carry a box that was half her size, setting it down every dozen steps or so as it began to slip from her grip. I picked up my pace, but didn’t catch up in time to help her as the box slipped completely from her grip to the sidewalk. As it tipped to one side, small spheres rolled out of the box toward a nearby street water drain close to where I was standing. Instinctively, I put out my right foot and stopped two of the spheres. Athena ran down two more, but one escaped both Athena and my right foot and toddled toward the water drain.

“Stop!” yelled Athena as she chased the runaway sphere. Watching her out of the corner of an eye, I stepped toward the box and set it upright. One entire side had been cut out and the interior was painted black. Seven spheres hung from fishing line from the top inside the box. The rings around one of the spheres immediately revealed that I was holding the solar system. The two spheres I had trapped with my foot were stray planets.

“I stopped the Earth! I stopped the Earth!” I looked up and saw Athena smiling broadly, holding a sphere like she was holding a butterfly.

“Wow! You’ve the whole world in your hands,” I said. “What’s your name? That’s quite something to stop the Earth.”

I offered to carry the box as she deposited the stray planets in her backpack. She was also carrying a portable blacklight, “so the planets glow. I used paint that glows.” Along the way I learned that she was the youngest of three children, “but the smartest. I’m an honor student. I didn’t have to make this project, but did it, anyway.”

“Why?” I asked.

“I don’t know,” Athena replied. “I just did.”

When we reached the school, the crossing guard stopped traffic for us.

“Hey, Mom — thanks for helping your daughter with her project,” shouted the guard.

“She’s not my mom, and she didn’t help,” said Athena. She then asked me to set the box on the sidewalk because, “I want to walk into the school by myself.”

“Hope everyone likes your project,” I said as I re-crossed  the street.

“She’s not your child?” asked the guard, suspiciously.

“No,” I replied. “I’m just a stranger who helped her stop the Earth. It was on its way down the drain.”

Shaking her head knowingly, the guard said, “You got that right, girl. You sure got that right. Have a great day!”