Abruptly, the ground shook. The air vibrated as if some giant’s breath were roaring across the world. And off in the distance, as wave after wave of thunder rolled across the Hollow, they all saw the Mars rocket lifting up, up, climbing straight into the cloudless blue sky on a tongue of sheer flame.
“A beautifur feat of engineering,” Rolf heard O’Rigami say.
The Mars rocket climbed higher, the roar of its mighty engines diminished. It became a distant speck, then a bright, fast-moving star shining in the morning sky. Then it got so far away that none of them could see it any longer.
Rolf felt as if he wanted to cheer, but it was all too magnificent and overpowering for something as small as one human voice. But it really did not matter. The gremlins were all cheering, for him. Rita was trying to hug him. The gremlins nearby were trying to hug him. Mr. Sheperton was standing on his hind legs, trying to lick Rolf’s face. It was all sort of a wonderful mess.
13
“…Crazy, the whole business,” said Rolf’s father, thoughtfully. “Absolutely crazy! On the other hand, does it matter? The bird got off all right, with only that short two-minute hold at the last minute—”
“What caused that?” asked Rolf’s mother. “You didn’t tell me.”
“One of those one-in-a-million things,” Rolf’s father dismissed the hold with a wave of his hand. “A loose connection in the ignition wiring. When we recycled and tried again, the light was white and there was no evidence that it had ever been anything else. But I’m not talking about that…”
Rolf fidgeted in his chair at the breakfast table. Rita, he knew, would be waiting at her place for him, by this time, but he dared not call attention to himself by leaving the table. His father, like most generally easygoing men, had one or two crotchets. One of them was that the whole family should be together at the breakfast table.
“…We never see each other the rest of the time,” he was in the habit of saying. “The least we can do is sit down and have a decent breakfast together before the day starts.”
All of which, of course, did not mean that Rolf could not leave the table—but he would bother his father by doing so, and his father’s reaction, when bothered, was suddenly to start remembering all the questions he normally did not get around to asking Rolf, such as where he was all day yesterday, and why didn’t he use his dependent’s pass to watch the rocket launch, and what had he been doing lately anyway? Rolf could lose more time than he would just sitting and waiting for his father to remember it was time to go to the office.
“…Almost enough to make you believe in gremlins,” his father was saying.
“Gremlins?” Rolf’s mother asked, trying to get a spoonful of applesauce into the baby without half of it going on to the flowered bib around the baby’s neck.
“Gremlins—imaginary little troublemakers that are always keeping things from working right,” said Rolf’s Dad with another wave. “Someone dreamed them up during World War II, I think. I didn’t mean it seriously about believing in them. Not that there aren’t all kinds of things…”
His mind wandered.
“What things, dear?” asked Rolf’s mother, wiping the baby’s chin with the bib.
“Well, that business the guards reported about some people on motorcycles running all over the place.”
“Did they find them?” Rolf’s mother asked. “The checkout girl in the supermarket was saying…”
Rolf’s dad snorted. He sounded almost like Shep.
“I’ve heard the rumors!” he said. “Bicycles riding at a hundred ninety miles an hour up one side of the VAB and down the other? Bicycles bouncing all over the Press Stand? Ridiculous. Besides, if there was anyone actually involved in something like that, how would they have gotten out of the Space Center, with every security man and car on duty looking for them?
“Well, at least everything’s A-okay with the spacecraft. The astronauts have been reporting that everything’s working absolutely perfectly. No gremlins aboard the spacecraft!”
Rolf struggled to keep a straight face.
Mr. Gunnarson sneezed.
“Are you catching a cold?” demanded Rolf’s mother, looking suddenly at him.
“No… no, I don’t think so,” said Rolf’s father. “Just thinking about that sneezing fit everybody had out at the launch a minute or two after the hold was called. No one knows about that either. There’s a notion that some unusual cloud of pollen blew in about that time. Well, there you are. Things all over the place not making sense—”
He gestured at the newspaper he had just laid down.
“Half a dozen U.S. senators opposed to the Wildlife Reclamation bill got caught in an elevator that stuck between floors and missed their chance to vote against the bill. It passed,” he said. “Some boat owner who’d been sneaking people into the Playalinda Beach area to watch launches ran it up on the beach there and was stranded. Got caught. Claimed he was going into a canal a friend of his had made months before—only somebody had moved the canal. Nonsense! Actually, he’d missed the canal entrance by a good fifty yards. Must have been blind. Then, here, it says that it looks as if the Space Program’s going to get a financial shot in the arm so that the Space Lab can get to work on wider-ranging studies of how to combat air pollution and topsoil erosion while surveying for more deposits of natural resources.”
“Wasn’t the Space Lab doing a lot of that sort of thing anyway?” Rolf’s mother asked, lifting Rolf’s baby sister out of her highchair.
“Of course. Amazing how few people seemed to know about it though,” Rolf’s dad answered. “Still, this is going to make that part of the work here a lot more important. Which reminds me—the surprise I mentioned I’d have for you after the launch. I’ve been asked if I want to shift into this new ecological study work.”
“You?” said Rolf, staring at him.
“Yes. It’s been a pet project of mine for some time. I didn’t want to say anything to you both because I wasn’t sure it could be pushed through. But it’s all set now. I’d be Engineering Director for it,” said Mr. Gunnarson, thoughtfully. “It means I’d have to go running off on trips to various parts of the world from time to time, but maybe we could tie some of those trips in with family vacations.”
“Why, I think it’s marvelous!” said Rolf’s mother. “Why didn’t you tell me until now?”
“Well, you were asleep when I came in at four a.m. after we got the launch wrapped up,” said Rolf’s father. “Besides, the only time this family ever gets together is at breakfast, and I thought we’d all talk about it together.”
He looked at Rolf, who was staring back at him.
“What do you think, Rolf?” he asked. Rolf gulped.
“Cool!” he said, hastily, getting up from the table. “But I’ve got to go now. Rita’s waiting for me.”
“Rita. That’s nice,” said his mother. “I’m so glad to see you spending some time with your friends for a change.”
“By the way, you didn’t ask me for a dependent’s pass to the launch,” said Rolf’s father. “Where were you yesterday?”
“Oh, just around,” said Rolf, halfway out the door.
“And come to think of it,” said his father, “weren’t you asking about a ten-speed bike back there a week or so ago?”
“Uh… well,” Rolf edged back toward the kitchen door. “I guess my old three-speed is fast enough, Dad. Really.”
“But…”
“I’ve got to go!” Rolf slipped out the kitchen door and paused only briefly in the hall to grab a towel from the linen closet.
“Where are you going, dear?” called his mother.
“Swimming! Down at the pool!” Rolf shouted back, stepping out the back door. His bike was waiting there with his bathing suit already in the rattrap. He added the towel to it and climbed on. Wait, he thought, until I tell Rita…