Page:Fantastic Volume 08 Number 01.djvu/90

 halfway in-between. "Sorry, Berenice, have to go again."

"But—"

"Now, don’t cry, darling. Please don’t cry."

But she cried anyway, she had to. What else could you do when you'd planned all spring for the halcyon summer days and the treks through the woods, the fishing and the campsite, the little fire burning brightly and your father sitting beside you in the serene summer night?

He was on his knees and he was holding her close, and now his face made her think of one of those balloons with faces painted on them that you blew up and twisted into different shapes, only not quite the same, because balloons couldn't cry—

"I'll write you, darling. Be a good girl now, and mind your mother."

The other boys were standing on the corner, waiting for him to pass. He gripped his galactic geography book tightly and he held his mouth firm, and he made his legs behave as though he wanted them to keep right on walking, as though the thought of flight was remote from his thoughts.

"Here comes Eberhardt Cross!"

"Hi, Eberhardt!"

"Climb any trees lately, Eberhardt?"

"Eberhardt, Eberhardt, Eberhardt Cross!"

He kept right on walking. If he stopped it would be worse. They wouldn't settle for mere words then—and there were five of them, and he was only one, and not much of a one at that.

But he thought: I'll show them. I'll show them if it takes me the rest of my life!

"Come in," her mother said, and the tall, handsome man stepped out of the summer night and into the scented living room. "I'm so glad you could drop by Run out and play now, Berenice, like a good little girl. You’ve been cooped up in the house all day"

Miss Tenthyear's android eyes beamed brightly as she assumed her lecture-posture by the desk. "Our final subject for today, class," she said, "will be the story of Captain Alexander Eberhardt.

"Your mothers and fathers have probably mentioned his name many times, and they've probably told you about how he piloted the first spaceship to the moon, had a nervous breakdown after he crashed there, and babbled for days 90