by Jack Webber
"I'm suppose to receive them this week."
"There isn't much week left." Hank took another drink of Coke. "Well I hope they arrive, for your sake. At least you're through with those people in any case."
The phone rang and Hank glanced at the display. "You have your phone on auto forward?"
"Yes."
"That's what I thought. It's your wife."
John walked over to Hank's desk. "I hope you don't mind; it’ll just be a minute." He took the phone back to his chair and pushed answer.
"We got them!" Mellissa's voice could be heard across the room.
"Got what?" asked John. Hank mouthed the same question at the same time.
"The tickets. Four tickets to Mars, with our names on them, for April 3."
John stood up and started dancing around the office. "I love you Mellissa." he yelled into the phone. "Let's celebrate."
"Did she say tickets?" asked Hank.
"Tickets." repeated John, for Hank's benefit. "Four tickets to Mars!"
He put the phone back up to his mouth. "Call Maria and see if we can go out tonight. We still have Squanto money left over. A nice restaurant, but one with a kids menu. See what you can put together. I'll be home early."
"You will?" asked Hank.
"I love you, I love you, I love you." John hung up the phone and handed it back to Hank.
"Four tickets?" stammered Hank.
John stopped dancing and sat back down in the green chair. "I'm sorry Hank, and I will miss you, and Jane, and the others, but yes, we're all going."
Hank stood up and paced back and forth. "I can't replace you! I don't know whether to congratulate you or hit you over the head with this trash can."
He picked up the can and swung it around the room, spilling a few papers onto the floor. "We're a team, a well oiled machine, and you're an integral part."
"You're wrong. We're a well oiled machine because you're the best manager I've ever seen. You'll find another expert in fusion physics, and your machine will hum along as always. You don't give yourself enough credit."
Hank sat back down in his chair and looked straight at John. "I'll miss you. And I don't think I can solve that problem with my management skills." He picked up his can of coke and put it back down on the desk without taking a drink. "Does anybody else know?"
"No."
"You better tell Jane at least."
"If it's all right with you, I'll tell the entire group at lunch today. I think we're all going across the street to the Noodle Company."
"Fair enough." replied Hank. "Meantime, I have to write a job description and post it on the internet. It's not going to be easy, finding someone who can do what you do. Oh by the way, your next assignment is to document the 135,000 lines of code you wrote. Restructure it if you need to, simple subroutines, modular design, and well commented. Now I know how you love to document, so dive right in."
"I'm thrilled." said John, returning the sarcasm.
Lily poked her head in the office. "There you are John; we're ready to go." She turned to Hank. "You're invited too, if you like."
"Thank you and I do appreciate it. But I have a lot of things to catch up on. Keep inviting me though. I'll try to say yes more often."
Jane had just taken her last byte of Thai noodles, in peanut sauce when John made his announcement. The others offered their congratulations, but Jane just looked at him from across the table.
For a moment John thought he saw a tear in her eye. "I know it's the best thing for you," she began, "for you and your family, but I feel like I'm losing a brother."
Upon hearing this, John felt a tear in his own eye, for Jane, and Ellare, and Hank, and all the people on Earth that he would never see again.
He cleared his throat and started to speak. "I know. I'll miss you all very much. You're losing me, but I'm losing everybody, except my family, and that will have to do. I'm not the first to leave for distant shores, and I won't be the last." He took a drink of water and cleared his throat again. "Well, we better get back to work."
The others returned to work, but John took the afternoon off, as promised.
His car barely came to a stop when he jumped out and ran into the house.
He gave Mellissa a big hug, and he wanted to do more, but Maria had already arrived. "She won't see a thing." he thought with a chuckle as he slipped his hands up under Mellissa's shirt. Mellissa giggled, and did not pull away.
"All right you two." scolded Maria. John pulled his arms back and Mellissa just smiled.
"I swear she's got radar." grumbled John as they sat down at the table.
"John, I was telling Mellissa how thrilled I was for you, but you know I'm going to miss your wife terribly. We've known each other 20 years, since college."
"I know." said John, and he gave her a quick hug. "We think it's best for our family."
----------------------------------------------------
John and Mellissa spent an hour reading through the rules and regulations, while Maria sat quietly, taking it all in. She was always listening, even when you thought she was off in another world.
"Did you read 7C yet?" asked John. "You're not going to like it."
"No." said Mellissa.
"All passengers will arrive with shaved heads, and body hair must not exceed one half inch in any location. Furthermore, any approved animals, such as a dog guide, must be entirely shaved. See section 9 for approved animals."
"Wonderful." mumbled Mellissa as she looked across the room into a mirror. Her hair was beautiful - light brown with natural waves.
"You're hair isn't very long is it?" Maria hadn't felt it in a while.
"No, replied Mellissa, "and I'm sure it will grow back soon enough, but I'm going to look awful in the meantime."
Tania and Mark ran into the house, said hello to Maria, and gave their parents a hug.
Mellissa hadn't thought about the kids. Should she tell them, or should she wait a couple of months? No - best to tell them now. It's a big change, and the kids need time to prepare.
Mellissa showed them the tickets with their names printed on the front, and Tania was thrilled. She ran around the room and screamed and danced. This is what she'd always wanted. But Mark was not terribly enthusiastic.
"I don't want to go. My friends are here. But I'll go if my friends can come with us. Can they come too?"
"I don't think so, but you'll make new friends on Mars." Mellissa was right; it would take several months to sell Mark the idea.
Ellare arrived a little after 5. "Guys, I really wanted to get out sooner, but I had meetings all afternoon and just couldn't get away." He gave John a hug and patted him on the back. "I don't know how you did it. I mean I just can't believe it. In fact, let me see those tickets."
He picked up the envelope and flipped through the four tickets. "Well I'll be a son of a gun. Don't know what we'll do without you though. You just make sure you write, and I mean often. And send us a voicemail now and then, so we don't forget what you sound like."
"Will do." promised John. But they all knew it was a lie. You don't keep in touch with someone you're never going to see again. You may write a couple of times, just for show, but life goes on, and old friends fade away as new ones take their place. It was inevitable.
Mellissa tried to push this thought from her mind.
For now, they had reservations at the Jennings Club, and Squanto was buying.
"Three weeks to the new year." thought John, "then another three months and we're on our way." It was easy for his mind to wander; commenting code was not terribly interesting.
With the addition of another day, December was now 60 days long, and as the Earth pulled away it was bound to get longer.
John thought this was a silly way to manage the calendar. "I wonder when we'll start bringing in new months. It's rather strange having one month twice as long as the others."
He typed in the description of a global structure, what it was used for and where it was set.
"Of course Mars started out with 22 months, each 30 days long, so they had no plans about adding more months as the planet's year grew longer. But when the calendar comprised 100 months, they stopped, and added days to the months as necessary."
He scrolled down the page, looking for code that was not, in his opinion, self-evident. "I don't think the Martian months have names any more, or if they do, nobody uses them. People on Mars talk about the date 17/35, meaning month 17 day 35. I'll have to get use to that." He entered some comments at the top of a subroutine. "Maybe Earth should take a lesson. But why wait for 100 months? Just keep the original 12 and let them grow as necessary. But make them grow evenly. Don't pile all the days onto December! You have to build evenly in Monopoly, don't you?"
His musings were interrupted by the phone on his desk. The call came from his house.
"Hi Mellissa, what's up?"
A male voice answered. "This isn't Mellissa, and if you want to see her alive again, you'd better get home right away. Just you, no police, nobody else."
EIGHT
The caller hung up with a click. John sat stunned for 30 seconds, the phone in his hand, and then he slammed it down and ran out of the office.
He called a car and got home as fast as he could.
Running inside the house, he saw a man with a gray jacket and gray hat sitting at the kitchen table, watching something that resembled a portable tv set.
"Come in." he called. "Glad you could make it on such short notice. Sit down."
He turned the tv towards John. "There's your pretty wife, held in a frame at the focus of a parabolic mirror. It's kinda hard to see the reflections, but those are mirrors behind her and at either side. In front of her is a shade, blocking the sun. All I have to do is make a call and the shade slides back. It won't take her long to cook in this summer heat. Oh, and I've also arranged for some audio, so you can hear her scream."
John sat down, trying not to panic. "Act like a king." he thought to himself. Mellissa was naked, staring straight ahead at the black shade. Sweat matted her hair and dripped down from her face onto her breasts. Even in the shade, it was terribly hot. A metal cage restrained her movements, and she looked like an animal caught in a trap.
"I can see that she's alive. What do you want?"
"I like that," laughed the visitor, "right to the point. For now I just want answers, and if even one of them is a lie, she's done for. Oh, and don't try anything; if my friends don't hear from me in a half hour they'll remove the shade."
He leaned back in his chair as though he had all the time in the world. "My name is Hoss, and I'm Squanto's handler."
He pulled out a rubber hand. "This is her handprint. I use it when I want to assume her identity. I also have samples of her voice."
He put the fake hand next to the TV. "Well I hadn't heard from her in weeks, so I tried to contact her, and nothing. My fault I suppose, whats with the holidays and all. I should have checked in earlier. Anyways, nothing. So I get in a car and pretend to be her. I've never seen so many preset destinations in my life! Apparently she had customers all over town. One of the preset locations was your workplace, the back entrance. So I look through her travel logs. The last trip she took was to that entrance. She can't leave on foot, not in this heat, so either she's been in that building for weeks, or she left as a passenger in somebody else's car, or she's dead."
"Thousands of people work there. How did you connect her with me?"
Hoss took out a copy of Squanto's money card. "I took a chance and called up her last transaction. Now I hate to tap into anybody's money card. They're really cracking down on suspicious activity. If I happen to use it, and she uses hers a few minutes later, and we're 100 miles apart, the system freezes the account, and we have a lot of explaining to do. So I don't like to tap into my clients' accounts unless I have to. Anyways, I took a quick peek at the last transaction, and it was a huge payment, to you."
"I'm impressed." said John. "Well I'll tell you everything you want to know, but I want her released." He pointed to the TV set.
"I'll release her when I'm good and ready. Now start talking."
"I took Squanto's money by force, then I killed her. I'll show you the transactions, but before I get into the details, there's something you should know." John pulled out her money card and brought up the logs. "I don't know if you realize it, but she was making millions."
Hoss took the card from John and looked through the accounts, just as Senator Hastings had done three weeks earlier. "I had no idea. Were all these people buying tickets to Mars?"
"I think so."
"You know, I was suppose to get 15% of everything she made. The little witch barely gave me 1%, not even that!" He slammed the card down on the table. "So you cleaned her out and killed her. Good. She owes me money, and you're going to settle the debt. I'll give you a total in just a second."
He picked up the card and activated the on-board calculator.
"I've already spent most of that money," explained John, "and I think you should see where."
He pulled out his own money card, typed in his access code, and showed Hoss the relevant transaction. "Millions of leppas to Senator Hastings."
Hoss stared at the transaction for over a minute. "You jump right to the top, don't you?"
"He said he liked my style. Said he might be able to get me a seat on the senate. Oh, and one more thing - he said anyone who messes with me or my family is in a world of hurt."
Hoss swallowed hard. He knew what the Senator had done to some of his enemies. "Excuse me for just a minute." He pushed a button on the front panel of the TV and spoke.
"Sam."
A voice answered from the TV set. "Yeah."
"Take Mellissa back inside, get her cleaned up, give her a cool drink, and send her home."
"Yes sir."
"And tell her this was all a misunderstanding and nothing like this will ever happen again."
"Yes sir."
Hoss turned off the TV. "She should be home in a couple hours, and I do apologize. I didn't realize..."
"Quite all right." said John.
It was time to play the role of good cop. "Tell you what, to show you there are no hard feelings, let me give you at least some of what Squanto owed you."
"Oh no," stammered Hoss, "you don't have to do that."
"Just a little something." John types some numbers into his money card and laid his finger on the scan strip. "But I'd like you to do something for me in return."
"Name it."
"We may be able to work together in the future, but for now, I need to understand what the Senator has in mind for me. So just leave me be for a few months. You can contact me again in May or June if you like." He passed the card over to Hoss.
Hoss smiled as he looked at the number in blue. "That will be fine." He typed in his account number and took the rest of Squanto's money.
John took his card back and put it in his pocket. What did he care about money anyways? Earth currency was worthless on Mars. It’s best to spend it now, to keep his family safe.
Hoss gathered up his belongings, including the small TV set.
"Don't forget the hand." John pointed to the replica of Squanto's hand on the table. "Wouldn't want any incriminating evidence lying about, in case the police come snooping around."
"Of course" Hoss picked up the hand and put it in his brief case.
He stood up, adjusted his hat, and walked towards the door. Suddenly he turned back towards John. "What did you do with the body?"
"I drove on manual to a remote location and dumped it in a ditch. It should be well degraded by now, under the summer sun. Do you need it for any reason? I can show you where it is."
"No, just curious." Hoss went to the front door, called for a car, and drove away.
John sat on the living room couch and waited.
An hour went by, then two.
Finally Mellissa came home and ran into his waiting arms.
John held her tight, and no
ticed that her hair smelled clean. Apparently they gave her a chance to wash up before she came home.
Neither one spoke for almost 20 minutes, then Mellissa began. "You put me in great danger today, and somehow you got me out of danger."
"That's right, and I'm so sorry."
"Is this likely to happen again? One of the men said it wouldn't."
"I don't think so." John told her about Hoss and his reaction to the Senator, and Squanto's money.
She listened without saying a word, then she stood up and headed for the stairs.
"I need to lie down. It's definitely been a day."
"May I come too?" John wouldn't blame her if she said no, if she wanted to be alone, but she surprised him by saying yes.
"But we're not going to do anything; I just want to lie down."
They crawled into bed, and John reached over to stroke Mellissa's hair. She was the love of his life, and she almost died a horrible death because of his obsession with Mars. He tried not to blame himself, but it really was his fault. He thought about Ellare, and Hank, and Jane; they were content to live here on Earth. They didn't need to run off to some other planet. Why couldn't he be like that?
His hand slowed, and then fell back against Mellissa's pillow. They slept fitfully, as horrible men stalked them in their dreams.
Finally Tania touched Mellissa on the arm. Mellissa awoke with a startle and almost screamed.
"Tania." she gasped, trying to catch her breath.
"I couldn't find you, and then I came up and you were both asleep. Why are you sleeping in the middle of the day?" children ask the most honest questions, but they don't always get honest answers, and sometimes they don't get answers at all.
"We're all right." said John as he sat up in bed. "Is Mark downstairs?"
"Yes." answered Tania.
"Well we'll be right down."
Tania scampered back downstairs and Mellissa turned to John. "Any ideas for dinner?"
"Maybe spaghetti." suggested John. "We have a batch of tomatoes that should be eaten."
They went through the rest of the evening as though it were just another day in the Larse household, and in doing so, it almost became just another day.
