Edith forced a shaky smile. 'Well… you been saying all along that you didn’t think they’d pick you.'
'Now I know for certain.'
The smile faded. 'Now we both know.'
They’ll go to Mars without me and I’ll disappear into oblivion, he said to himself, unable to speak the words aloud. I’ll become just another university geologist, going nowhere, accomplishing nothing. He looked at his face in the mirror over the sink: anger smoldered in his dark eyes. All you need is some war paint, he said to the somber image.
Edith knew him well enough to realize he had no more words for her. She turned and went back to the sliding patio doors, tugged one open. It stuck halfway along its track.
'Damned rust,' she muttered, slipping through the narrow opening and out onto the patio. 'Air’s pure salt out here.'
Jamie crossed the carpeted room and leaned against the reluctant door, then pushed with all his strength with both hands, suddenly furious. It screeched and popped off its track as it slid all the way back. Jamie snorted and glared at it hanging lopsided from its top rollers. Then he stepped through onto the patio. Going out of the air-conditioned room was like going from ice cream to hot soup. He felt perspiration instantly dampening his armpits.
Edith ignored his explosion of brute force. 'Looks pretty,' she said, gazing out at the tranquil Gulf. 'Between hurricanes, that is.'
Grasping the railing beside her with both hands, Jamie tried to force his mind away from the pain and anger. 'Ever seen the Pacific?'
'Just on tapes.'
'The surf is incredible. This is a milk pond by comparison.'
'You ever surf?'
'Not really,' he said. 'Never had the time for it.'
'I like sailing. Got a friend with a Hobie Cat. They’re fun.'
Jamie took a deep breath of salt air. 'The first time I saw the ocean, I must have been four, five years old. My parents had just moved to Berkeley from New Mexico and I thought the Bay was all the water in the world. Then they took me to the beach and I saw the Pacific. Damned breakers scared the shit out of me.'
'What’re y’all gonna do now?' Edith asked, forgetting her diction lessons.
Jamie kept his eyes on the calm water, the ripples of waves riding across the pastel green-blue water to foam briefly against the sand beach. From this height he could barely hear the hiss of the gentle surf.
'Look for a job, I guess.'
'At the university or in private industry?'
'What the hell could I do in private industry that a kid ten years younger can’t?' he snapped, then immediately regretted it. More calmly, 'University. But not here. I don’t want to be this close to the Mars mission. Not now.'
'Up in Austin…?'
'Maybe. California might be better. More likely Albuquerque.' He turned to her. 'I don’t know. It’s too soon.'
'But you’re gonna be leaving.'
'Yes. I think so.'
He realized that she was trying to hide the pain that she felt. Pulling her to him, Jamie held her tightly. Edith did not cry, but he could feel the tension constricting her body. He wished she would cry. He wished he could himself.
It was two in the morning when the phone call came.
The buzz of the phone jangled Jamie awake instantly, but for several blurry moments he did not know where he was. The phone shrilled again, insistently. He realized Edith was beside him, stirring now, mumbling into her pillow.
His eyes adjusting to the glow of the digital clock on the dresser, Jamie reached across her naked body and lifted the phone from its base.
'Hello.'
'James Waterman?'
'Who wants to know?'
'Come now, Jamie, this is Antony Reed, in Star City. Do you have any idea how long it’s taken me to track you down?'
'Christ, it’s two in the morning here. What the hell do you want?'
'DiNardo’s in hospital. A gall bladder attack. He’ll need surgery.'
Jamie sat up rigidly in the bed.
'What’s happening?' Edith asked, awake now.
'Did you hear me?' Reed asked. It was the first time that Jamie had ever heard the Englishman sound excited.
'Yes.'
'There’s a godawful row going on upstairs. Brumado’s flying in from the States, from what I hear. He wants to meet with the selection board and Dr. Li.'
'So Hoffman’s moved up to number one and I’ll be his backup?' Jamie asked, surprised at the tremor in his voice.
'Can’t be certain of anything right now,' Reed answered. 'The entire question is going to be reviewed this afternoon or Sunday.'
'What is it?' Edith was excited now too. 'Have they changed their minds?'
'Whatever you do,' Reed was saying, 'stay in close touch with Houston. You may have to fly out here on Monday. Or perhaps go straight up to the space station. We were supposed to start shipping up there tomorrow, but everything’s been put on hold temporarily.'
'Okay,' Jamie said shakily. 'Thanks for letting me know.'
'Nothing to it, old boy. Most of us would much rather have you aboard than that prig Hoffman.'
'Thanks.'
'Good luck!' The line clicked dead.
'What is it?' Edith asked, sitting up beside him.
Jamie realized his hands were trembling. 'Father DiNardo’s been taken sick. He’s going into surgery. It looks like I’ll be going on the mission after all.'
'Hot spit!' Edith dove out of the bed and began rummaging in her shoulder bag resting on the chair next to the curtained window. Jamie watched her slim naked figure as she bent over the bag, muttering to herself.
'Hah! Got it!'
She bounced back into the bed with a palm-sized tape recorder in her hand.
'What the hell?' Jamie wondered.
'This is an on-the-scene interview with geologist James Fox Waterman, who has just been informed that he has been selected to be on the team that flies to the planet Mars two months from now.'
He laughed, but apparently Edith was completely serious.
'Dr. Waterman, how do you feel about being selected to be part of the first human expedition to the planet Mars?'
Jamie blurted, 'Horny. Very horny.'
He took the tape recorder from her hand and placed it on the night table beside her. The tape ran out long before they finished making love.
2
As the cab pulled up to the curb in front of his parents’ home Jamie realized for the first time how
