'Hello, Dr. Clemons this is Colonel Ames . . .'
You have never seen a man with busted ribs move so fast. I grabbed my side with my left hand, rolled hard to the right, sat up on the side of the bed, and grabbed the phone.
'Hello, uh, hang on a minute, let me turn this thing off.' I slapped the machine hard. Composing myself, 'Hello Tabitha, how are you?'
'Fine thanks.'
'What can I do you for?' I said thinking I was being cool. I'm sure I wasn't and I'm sure she didn't think I was either.
'Uh, well. I wanted to talk to you about the meeting at Goddard. You left early. I hope you're okay?'
'What me, never better,' I lied. Rolling over so fast really hurt.
'Well, good. I was hoping to come see you and talk for a while about what you can do with the funds we have left for your project. I'd also like to catch up on what you've been doing.'
'Okay, sounds cool. When are you coming down?'
'What do you mean?'
'When will you be in Huntsville?'
'I'm sorry. I
'Uh, no.'
'Oh.'
'How long are you here?'
'My plane leaves Tuesday next week. I have some things to do with Space Camp on Monday so I'm staying over the weekend. Could we meet sometime between now and Tuesday?'
'I'm open all day Friday.'
'Are you okay?'
'I think so. Why?' She sounded confused.
'Today
I looked at my watch. Sure enough it was Friday. I'd been asleep for nearly two days; no wonder I was so thirsty. I shook my head to clear it. 'Maybe these painkillers are wearing me down.'
'We could do this some other time. You can call me when you feel better.'
'Hold on!' I pleaded. 'Listen, do you like hamburgers and hot dogs?'
'I guess. Why?'
'Well, I'm hosting the spring semester graduate student cookout at my house Saturday evening. You're here anyway. Why don't you come over and join us? I'm sure the students would love to meet a big famous astronaut like you. We could talk then. What do you say?' It took a little more conniving and goading but I finally convinced her to come to the cookout—for the students, of course. I had a lot to do to get ready. I was now a whole day behind schedule.
First, I had to take care of Jim and Rebecca's classes. I called up Jan. She really runs the graduate school, not the dean. All he does is sign stuff when she tells him to. After a few minutes we decided that if both of them took
Jan and I also figured out all the final details for the cookout. When I told her who would be the special guest there, she said that we had better buy more hamburgers and hot dogs. I guessed that meant more beer, too!
The cookout was going quite well I thought. My 'Kiss the Physicist' apron and chef's hat went over pretty well. Thanks, Mom. That reminded me. Damn! Before I let everyone dig in, I had them join us in Alan Shepard's Prayer.
'Everyone, attention please.' I banged on the grill top with the spatula until it reached a resonance just flat of a B.
Nothing happened until Jan yelled, 'Shut up!' Everyone shut up.
I picked up my beer and held it high.
'Everyone please face the rocket, put your right hand over your heart, and raise your beverage with your left!' You can see the big Saturn V from my backyard. Hell, in just about any backyard in Huntsville you can see the big Saturn V.
I continued, 'Please join in THE prayer. Dear Lord . . .' I began. The whole crew joined in, 'PLEASE DON'T LET ME SCREW UP!' Of course some of the rather less refined students and faculty didn't say 'screw,' if you know what I mean. The way I have heard the story neither did Shepard.
'Amen, brother!'
'Amen!'
'Let's eat!' I yelled.
I noticed Tabitha laughed at the spectacle. She showed up about six-thirty in the evening, just as the grill was getting hot. Rebecca grabbed her and kept her away from me most of the night. She was a big hit. Tabitha didn't do
