It happened as he was making his final orbit before re-entry.
It had been a long space mission. The ship was cruising nicely when he felt a sudden, violent bump. He shook his head, thinking that he may have passed out for a moment. He checked all his instruments and found nothing amiss. After docking at the spaceport, he climbed down from his craft feeling completely exhausted. A spaceport car was seconded to take him home. His driver wasn’t the regular one that transported astronauts out from the port complex, but he was friendly enough. His street was a welcome sight and the front driveway with the flowerbeds on either side were looking as good as ever. He was dropped off and allowed to make his way in on his own. Seven months in space was a long time to be away from his family. He could see movement at the windows and a tiny hand waving.
As he stepped through the front door a woman, not his wife, threw her arms around him. Instead of his young daughter running up to greet him, a small boy came up and grabbed him by the hand. As the strange child led him into the lounge, he wasn’t the least bit surprised to find that his cat was not curled up on his favourite armchair, but a very large dog was stretched out on the rug.
Being, by reputation, the most level-headed astronaut in the space fleet, he decided the best thing to do was to get a really good night’s sleep and sort it all out in the morning.