At the space center, the staff were watching on as everything prepared for lift-off.
Two guys who worked with the shuttle inventory were talking as they watched on.
"Ah Max - if only I could go on one of those some day!! I Would give anything to do that."
"You know that they encourage to work towards the initiative program - that we could go and study so one day we could go too..." Max also looked longingly at the shuttle as the engines roared into life.
"Well Bruce - I may not be on there, but a little piece of me is."
"What? What the hell are you talking about?"
Max's eyes sparkled: "My favorite little plant, my African Violet. I hid it amongst the boxes of toilet paper for good luck, for the guys."
"ARE YOU CRAZY!! Do you know what Infection control would do to you if they knew? They would kill you. There may be a bug on your African Violet. You may have created an infection and the whole ship can't escape. We have to stop it."
At that very moment they heard the words "We have Lift Off, We have Lift Off."
Bruce just turned back to Max: "What ever you just said to me - I never heard it. I just don't want to know. OK?"
"OK"
They both watched on as the first African Violet went into space...