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something important from him…he could ignore that. It was their surfaces, their external images, that had
brought them together.
Lilo opened her large blue eyes suddenly and stared vacantly at him until a look of comprehension
passed over her face. She glanced up at the screen and gasped. "My God," she said, looking at the lunar
image. "Mike, look at that. I didn't think…" She sank back into her seat and continued to gaze at the
image.
Mike smiled tolerantly. Lilo's education had been so sparse that she, upon landing at the space station,
had been under the impression that it was the ship that would take them to the moon. He had explained
to her that an object of that size would encounter difficulties in landing on any large body. God only knew
what she was thinking now. He hoped she would find enough to do to keep her from getting bored.
"Are you feeling all right?" Kira said to the image of Hidey on the phone screen. She waited, and the
image at last nodded.
"Well enough. I've been getting to bed early, I've been eating three meals a day, I do exercises every
morning." Hidey glanced at the ashtray next to his chair. He winced and she knew he was regretting that
he had not moved it out of sight of the screen. "And I've cut down my smoking. Just a couple with my
morning coffee and one after dinner."
"But you promised you'd quit altogether," she said, forgetting about the three-second delay and missing
part of his next sentence.
"…Rina every afternoon, she had supper here last night." He paused. "I am cutting down, Kira. Look, if I
haven't quit by the time you get back, I'll go for conditioning, I promise. That ought to convince you. I
don't like having my will bent by a bunch of psycho-technicians, but I'll do it for you."
She had heard that before. Hidey had gone once already, after the coronary. The conditioning had lasted
six months. "You could at least smoke the tobacco substitutes." But she knew the answer to that too.
They might taste the same, but they did not feel the same. He missed the nicotine.
For a person with his training and aptitudes, Hidey certainly seemed to have a streak of perversity. He
had worked to extend life and health, yet he insisted on putting his own in jeopardy. Jim's theory,
explained to her during his last visit, was that Hidey was unconsciously punishing himself for defying the
inevitability of death. She preferred to believe that her husband had acquired a bad and not easily broken
habit.
"Tell me how Rina is," she went on.
"Fine," he said three seconds later. "She's growing fast, we went and bought some new overalls and
shoes last week. She got into a fight with a little boy who kept picking on the younger children and I don't
think he'll be doing it again. She wants to cross-breed some peas in the spring and I'll help her on that. It
all started when she asked me why she has black hair and brown eyes instead of green eyes and brown
hair, like you."
Kira smiled. "I miss her."
"You should call her more often," he said as she spoke.
"I've been busy, but that's no excuse. I'll call her tonight."
"She really missed you this past Christmas, I guess you know. You won't recognize her when you get
back. Come to think of it, you won't recognize the neighborhood. Most of the houses further up are
finally gone. They'll be farming the land in the spring. I figure we'll probably have to move in two or three
years."
I should go home, she thought suddenly, in a panic.What am I doing up here, on a fool's mission?
She looked at Hidey's hair, now almost completely gray, the lines around his eyes, the looseness of his
skin.I could be down there, helping Hidey, making him well.
But that, after all, was part of the reason she was here.
She leaned forward. "I miss you, Hidey, more than I can stand sometimes, more than I miss Rina, I
think." She reached out with her hand to the screen.
Simone had only been back from Earth for a day. Al had tried his best to make her first day back a good
one. He had taken her out on the surface for a walk, then treated her, along with his recently arrived
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