Sputnik

We were mad for the Sputnik. We devoured any news about it. We papered our bedroom walls with pictures and diagrams from the papers. One of us had a wireless which could pick up the Sputnik’s beeps and we would listen to it until it moved out of range.

The Sputnik raced around the world, oblivious to our tiny lives. For a few, obsessed days, it seemed that the Russians had created a God and we worshipped it.