"Sure thing! I'll have everything straightened out in a month or so, then we're free to do anything we like. I'd like you kids to see Earth." He turned to the telescreen as the scene switched to the sports arena. "I think Canal City will win again. Beautiful strategy!" He leaned forward expectantly. "Yes, I've always wanted to see Earth," Klee said without much conviction. "It must be much prettier than Mars. Isn't Desert City ahead, dear? Last week you said their team was the best on Mars." "Oh, that was last week," Jonathan scoffed. "Just watch this strategy! Unbeatable!" His eyes glowed as he watched the swift, intricate pattern fluctuations of the game. The same old thing, Lanya thought dejectedly. Always the same insincere answer and then the subject was changed. Virgil crawled across the floor toward her as she connected spheres and rods in a complicated molecular design. He studied the schematic system with lazy curiosity. "This electron is in the wrong orbit," he said at last and removed the offending sphere and inserted it in its proper position in the pattern. "Remember?" "Thanks," said Lanya without much feeling. "I can't keep my mind on this silly thing anymore." And she added dreamily, "I'll bet they have wonderful scientific toys on Earth. Naddi Cruz has an electronic telescope her parents got on their vacation there. I wish I had one." "We'll get one of everything when we get to Earth." Virgil promised magnanimously. * * * * * Klee helped pack the food supplies in metal containers, very obviously humoring her children in this game they were playing. "Why so much, Lanya? You seem to be going on a long journey." Her eyes twinkled amusedly. Lanya peered at her mother in blank astonishment. Had she forgotten already? "We're going to Earth, mother. Don't you remember?" "Oh, yes," Klee said hastily. "And how was it you were going to get there?" She glanced across the dry, desolate span of desert to the distant bulwarks of the canal. "I wonder if it will rain this year." "The rocket ship we've been building out in the shop," Lanya said with keen disappointment. Her mother didn't remember a thing! "That's nice. A rocket ship." Klee paused, as though searching for just the right word to express her approval and enthusiasm. "How cute." Lanya forced back the tears of disappointment that surged involuntarily to her eyes. She grabbed a large container and shuffled out, feeling, not altogether happily, that now the last possible barrier and objection to the running away had been removed. Her mother hadn't taken the slightest interest. The ship stood now in the launching rig, a gleaming, purposeful projectile, reflecting the red hue of the Martian desert in the blazing sun. "Mother thinks we're just playing games," she told Virgil who hovered expertly and solicitously about the ship, finding flimsy excuses to polish here and rub there. It didn't seem to shine quite to his satisfaction.