She looked at it ‘This is two-thirds of all you made on the deal?’
‘Of course,’ added Pollux, ‘it wasn’t a total loss. We had the use of the bicycles for a couple of hundred million miles.’
XIV — FLAT CATS FACTORIAL
Vandenbergh made good his offer. Lowell and he went by stratorocket to the treaty town of Richardson, were gone about three days. When Lowell came back he had seen a Martian, he had talked with one. But he had been cautioned not to talk about it and his family could get no coherent account out of him.
But the simple matter of housing was more difficult than the presumably impossible problem of meeting a Martian. Roger Stone had had no luck in finding larger and more comfortable quarters, even after he had resigned himself to fantastic rentals. The town was bursting with tourists and would be until Venus departure, at which time those taking the triangular trip would leave — a majority, in fact. In the meantime they crowded the restaurants, took pictures of everything including each other, and ran their bicycles over the toes of pedestrians. Further packing a city already supersaturated were sand rats in from the desert and trying to arrange some way, any way, to get out to the Hallelujah Node in the Asteroid Belt.
Dr Stone said one night at dinner, ‘Roger, tomorrow is rent day. Shall I pay it for a full month? Mr d’Avril says that the Burkhardts are talking about staying on.’
‘Pay it for six days only,’ Hazel advised. ‘We can do better than this after Venus departure — I hope.’
Roger Stone looked up and scowled. ‘Look here, why pay the rent at all?’
‘What are you saying, dear?’
‘Edith, I’ve been chewing this over in my mind. When we first came here our plans, such as they were, called for living here through one wait.’ He referred to the fifteen months elapsed time from arrival Mars to Earth departure from Mars, using the economical orbits. Then we planned to shape orbit home. Fair enough, if this overrated tourist trap had decent housing. But I haven’t been able to start writing my book. When Buster isn’t climbing into my lap, his pet is slithering down the back of my neck.’
‘What do you suggest, dear?’
‘Go to Phobos tomorrow, get the old Rock ready to go, and blast for Venus when the others do.’
‘Loud cheers!’ agreed Meade. ‘Let’s go!’
Dr Stone said, ‘Meade, I thought you didn’t like Venus?’
‘I don’t. But I don’t like it here and I’m tired all the time. I’d like to get back into free fall.’
‘You shouldn’t be tired. Perhaps I had better check you over.’
‘Oh, Mother, I’m perfectly well! I don’t want to be poked at.’ Lowell grinned. ‘I know why she wants to go to Venus — Mr Magill.’
‘Don’t be a snoop, Snoop!’ Meade went on with quiet dignity. ‘In case anyone is interested, I am not interested in Second Officer Magill — and I wouldn’t be going in the Caravan in any case. Besides, I found out he already has a wife in Colorado.’ Hazel said, ‘Well, that’s legal. He’s still eligible off Earth,’
‘Perhaps it is, but I don’t like it.’
‘Neither do I,’ Roger Stone cut in. ‘Meade, you weren’t really getting interested in this wolf in sheep’s clothing, were you?’
‘Of course not, Daddy!’ She added, ‘But I suppose I’ll get married one of these days.’
‘That’s the trouble with girls,’ Castor commented. ‘Give them educations — boom! They get married. Wasted.’
Hazel glared at them, ‘Oh, so? Where would you be if I hadn’t married?’
‘It didn’t happen that way,’ Roger Stone cut in, ‘so there is no use talking about other possibilities. They probably aren’t really possibilities at all, if only we understood it.’
Pollux: ‘Predestination.’
Castor: ‘Very shaky theory.’
Roger grinned. ‘I’m not a determinist and you can’t get my goat. I believe in free will.’
Pollux: ‘Another very shaky theory.’
‘Make up your minds,’ their father told them. ‘You can’t have it both ways.’
‘Why not?’ asked Hazel. ‘Free will is a golden thread running through the frozen matrix of fixed events.’