Journey Between Worlds Read Free Page B

what do you mean, you’ve waited years? I never knew—”
    â€œThat I planned to emigrate to the Colonies once?”
    â€œTo homestead—you?”
    â€œIt was all settled. Our application had been accepted, conditional on our passing the medical exam. Then your mother . . . well, that was when they discovered the heart condition, Mel. We had to give it up.”
    â€œMy mother wanted to go to Mars?” Why, I thought, I would have gone, too. I would have been a Martian.
    â€œShe did, very much. It was in her blood, she said; her ancestors were pioneers.” He sighed. “That was a long time ago. When she died I was over the age limit for a nonresident job, and, of course, I wouldn’t have wanted to homestead without her even if single immigrants had been allowed. But later, I began to hope that I could go for a trip someday. I’ve been lucky, Mel; it’s worked out.”
    I don’t think he noticed how quiet I was. He tightened his arm around my shoulders and grinned at me. “It was a close thing. I was so afraid I wouldn’t be able to fix it so you could come along. Mel, honey, what if I’d had to choose between going to Mars and having you with me?”
    What could I say? It just goes to show how two people can have the closest possible family relationship and still not know anything about each other at all. I had never dreamed that Dad was the kind to have any interest in other planets, and he apparently was assuming that because he wanted to go so much, I must feel the same way. And I couldn’t blame him. What had I ever done to give him any other idea? When had I ever put any of my real thoughts and feelings into a letter? I had written reams of the casual, newsy stuff that it seemed a father would want to hear. But, it suddenly occurred to me, he hadn’t been the only one who’d failed to give much thought to what the person on the other side of the correspondence truly cared about.
    I’d gotten into a fine fix! Because I couldn’t go, I just couldn’t. Why, I’d lose almost a whole year out of my life, and I knew that Ross would be furious. It would upset everything, all the neatly planned steps leading up to the safe, permanent future that I had dreamed about for so long. Ross might not wait a year. If I wasn’t with him at the university, he might start dating someone else. He might change his mind about the wedding, want to put it off. He might develop different ideas, so that by the time we were married he might not be willing to live at Maple Beach anymore.
    And what use would there be in it? I was an old-fashioned girl at heart; all this space business had always seemed pretty pointless to me. What was wrong with Earth, for goodness sake? The things that were significant, all of history in fact, had happened right there. That first Melinda—the one who’d come as a settler to the Oregon Country and worked so hard to make a home—what would she have thought of people turning their backs on everything that was natural ?
    I wanted to be with Dad, but not enough to risk everything for the sake of a trip I wouldn’t even enjoy. Not after the way I’d laughed at girls who would do just about anything to get on board a ship, though I knew they’d be envious. Yet I didn’t want to hurt Dad’s feelings. He’d tried so hard to arrange my passage that I couldn’t come right out and tell him to give the ticket back. I’d have to think of something, but it could wait until tomorrow. Tomorrow we would be at Gran’s and I could walk on the beach for a while and think; that was bound to be a help.
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    I didn’t mean to tell Ross that night, and sometimes I wonder how things would have turned out if I hadn’t. It just slipped out, really. We were in the car, on our way to Portland. Ross couldn’t help but notice that I wasn’t being the best of company; in fact I