Priory put into words the very thing I didn't dare say out loud. "Chris, the Astronaut Board selects. You can't apply for it. You wait". "I know". "You wait from the time you're old enough to turn cold in the stomach when you see a Moon rocket, until all the years go by, and every month that passes you hope that one morning a blue Astronaut helicopter will come down out of the sky, land on your lawn, and that a neat-looking engineer will ease out, walk up the rampway briskly, and touch the bell. "You keep waiting for that helicopter until you're twenty-one. And then, on the last day of your twentieth year you drink and laugh a lot and say what the heck, you didn't really care about it, anyway".
We both just sat there, deep in the middle of his words. We both just sat there. Then: "I don't want that disappointment, Chris. I'm fifteen, just like you. But if I reach my twenty-first year without an Astronaut ringing the bell where I live at the ortho-station, I". "I know" I said. "I know. I've talked to men who've waited, all for nothing. And if it happens that way to us, Ralph, well we'll get good and drunk together and then go out and take jobs loading cargo on a Europe-bound freighter". Ralph stiffened and his face went pale. "Loading cargo".
There was a soft, quick step on the ramp and my mother was there. I smiled. "Hi, lady!" "Hello. Hello, Ralph". "Hello, Jhene". She didn't look much older than twenty-five, in spite of having birthed and raised me and worked at the Government Statistics House. She was light and graceful and smiled a lot, and I could see how father must have loved her very much when he was alive. One parent is better than none. Poor Priory, now, raised in one of those orthopedical stations. . .
Jhene walked over and put her hand on Ralph's face. "You look ill" she said. "What's wrong?" Ralph managed a fairly good smile. "Nothing at all". Jhene didn't need prompting. She said, "You can stay here I tonight, Priory. We want you. Don't we, Chris?" "Heck, yes". "I should get back to the station" said Ralph, rather feebly, I observed. "But since you asked and Chris here needs help on his semantics for tomorrow, I'll stick and help him. "Very generous" I observed. "First, though, I've a few errands. I'll take the 'rail and be back in an hour, people".
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