‘Take it easy!’ Roger Stone protested. ‘You are both mixed up in your timing. I’m no longer mayor, thank heaven — and nothing is settled yet. What are the terms?’
Ekizian glanced at Hazel, who pursed her lips. ‘Well, now, son,’ she said slowly, ‘it’s like this. I’m too old a woman to fiddle around. I might die in bed, waiting for you to consider all sides of the question. So I bought it’
‘You?’
‘For all practical purposes. It’s a syndicate. Dan puts up the ship; I wangle the cargo — and the boys and I take the stuff out to the Asteroids for a fat profit. I’ve always wanted to be a skipper.’
Castor and Pollux had been lounging in the background, listening and watching faces. At Hazel’s announcement Pollux started to speak; Castor caught his eye and shook his head. Mr Stone said explosively, ‘That’s preposterous! I won’t let you do it’
‘I’m of age, son.’
‘Mr Ekizian, you must be out of your mind.’
The dealer took his cigar and stared at the end of it. ‘Business is business.’
‘Well…at least you won’t get my boys mixed up in it. That’s out!’
‘Mmm… ‘ said Hazel. ‘Maybe. Maybe not. Let’s ask them.’
‘They’re not of age.’
‘No… not quite. But suppose they went into court and asked that I be appointed their guardian?’
Mr Stone listened to this quietly, then turned to his sons. ‘Cas… Pol … did you frame this with your grandmother?’
Pollux answered, ‘No, sir.’
‘Would you do what she suggests?’
Castor answered, ‘Now, Dad, you know we wouldn’t like to do anything like that.’
‘But would you do it, eh?’
‘I didn’t say so, sir.’
‘Hmm — ‘ Mr Stone turned back. ‘This is pure blackmail — and I won’t stand for it. Mr Ekizian, you knew that I came in here to bid on that ship. You knew that my mother was to bargain for it as my agent. You both knew that — but you made a deal behind my back. Now either you set that so-called deal aside and we start over — or I haul both of you down to the Better Business Bureau.
Hazel was expressionless; Mr. Ekizian examined his rings.
‘There’s something in what you say, Mr Stone. Suppose we go inside and talk it over?’
‘I think we had better.’
Hazel followed them in and plucked at her son’s sleeve before he had a chance to start anything. ‘Roger? You really want to buy this ship?’
‘I do.’
She pointed to papers spread on Ekizian’s desk. ‘Then just sign right there and stamp your thumb.’
He picked up the papers instead. They contained no suggestion of the deal Hazel had outlined; instead they conveyed to him all right, title and interest in the vessel he had just inspected, and at a price much lower than he had been prepared to pay. He did some hasty mental arithmetic and concluded that Hazel had not only gotten the ship at scrapmetal prices but also must have bulldozed Ekizian into discounting the price by what it would have cost him to cut the ship up into pieces for salvage.
In dead silence he reached for Mr Ekizian’s desk stylus, signed his name, then carefully affixed his thumb print. He looked up and caught his mother’s eye. ‘Hazel, there is no honesty in you and you’ll come to a bad end.’
She smiled. ‘Roger, you do say the sweetest things.’
Mr Ekizian sighed. ‘As I said, Mr Stone, your mother is a very smart woman. I offered her a partnership.’
‘Then there was a deal?’
‘Oh, no, no, not that deal — I offered her a partnership in the lot.’
‘But I didn’t take it.’ Hazel added. ‘I want elbow room.’
Roger Stone grinned and shrugged, stood up. ‘Well, anyway — who’s skipper now?’
‘You are — Captain.’
As they came out both twins said, ‘Dad’ did you buy it?’
Hazel answered, ‘Don’t call him “Dad” — he prefers to be called “Captain”.’
‘Oh.’
‘Likewise “Oh”,’ Pol repeated.
Dr Stone’s only comment was, ‘Yes, dear, I gave them notice on the lease.’
Meade was almost incoherent; Lowell was incoherent. After dinner Hazel and the twins took Meade and the baby out to see their ship; Dr Stone — who had shown no excitement even during the Great Meteor Shower — stayed home with her husband. He spent the time making lists of things that must be attended to, both in the city and on the ship itself, before they could leave. He finished by making a list that read as follows: