The Calculating Stars (Lady Astronaut, #1)(123)

She blinked at me and then, surprising everyone—including herself, I think—Betty burst into tears. For a moment, we all stood there, shocked. I don’t know who moved first. Maybe Nicole. Maybe Jacira. Maybe me. But in a moment, we all had her surrounded and held.

And that—that was when I knew that we really had something. We were Lady Astronauts. All of us. And, goddamn it, we were all going to go into space.

*

I was not the first woman in space. Nor would I be the first woman on the moon. My role was to fly the command module while my male colleagues went to the surface.

The night before we all went into isolation—it wouldn’t do to get ill during the eight days we were in space—Nathaniel and I threw a party. Nicole let us borrow her house, since our apartment was too tiny.

It is a strange thing, knowing that, in a little over a week, you will be strapped to a four-megaton bomb and hurled into airless space. Every time I spoke to someone, I couldn’t help but think, This might be the last time.

But I’d been given a second chance with Aunt Esther, hadn’t I? She sat next to me on the sofa in Nicole’s living room with a rum and Coke perched on her knee. The party might have been in my honor, but she was the life of it.

“The worst of it was that I’d lost Mama’s union card under the roller coaster! There I was, on the horns of a dilemma…”

Eugene Lindholm knelt on one knee to listen to Aunt Esther, while Myrtle perched on the arm of the sofa. He seemed to find my aunt endlessly charming. “What did you do, ma’am?”

I’d been a little concerned when I introduced her to the Lindholms. What would this old Southern woman think about our black friends? I needn’t have worried.

She laid her hand on Eugene’s arm. “Well, I’m glad you asked. I knew that if I didn’t find the card, Mama would know that I’d snuck out to the carnival, and worse, she wouldn’t be able to work … so Rose and I snuck behind the roller coaster, then I hitched my skirt up to my thighs and crawled under it. If Mama had known how much leg I was exposing, she would have been more upset by that than the loss of her card! But I got it back. Yes I did.”

Hershel sat in the chair to my right, his crutches propped against its side. He leaned over to me and gestured to Aunt Esther. “It’s like this at home. If we can get her telling stories from when she was a kid, there’s no end to them. What she had for breakfast? Not so much.”

“But it’s working out?”

He smiled. “It’s perfect. Well, all right, not perfect, but the kids love her, and she’s able to help Doris with cooking, so it’s pretty good. Speaking of kids … Tommy!”

“Now, I’ve been talking so much I haven’t had a drop to drink. Why don’t you tell me about yourself, young man?” Aunt Esther took a sip of her rum and Coke, bright eyes shining at Eugene.

I had to admire how skillfully Aunt Esther dodged the fact that she couldn’t remember Eugene’s name. I made a note to try that line next time I was “in the barrel” on a press junket.

Tommy arrived at his father’s side. “Yes, sir?”

“Go get the present we brought Aunt Elma.”

He nodded and ran off again, all long legs. I shook my head. “I swear he’s a foot taller than last year.”

“We can’t keep him in clothes.”

“—heading in for astronaut testing.”

I swiveled to Eugene. “What? When were you going to tell me? Congratulations!”

“They just sent the letters out.” Eugene shrugged, looking surprisingly sheepish. “You’ve been a little busy.”

“Which is understandable.” Myrtle rested a hand on his shoulder with proprietary pride. “He passed the tests be fore, so hopefully this time they’ll have the sense the good Lord gave them, and accept him.”

“Well, Parker likes you, which will help enormously.” I left alone our continuing animosity. At times it seemed as if it had vanished, but he never let me forget about the Miltown. “You said the letters just went out…? Excuse me.”

I stood and went in search of Helen. She, Ida, and Imogene stood near the punch bowl, giggling with Betty. “… still can’t belie—Shush!”

“Shush?” I stopped next to them and arched a brow. “So, you’ve either just spiked the punch, or you got a letter that none of you told me about.”

Helen bounced on her toes, face splitting into a grin that looked like it must hurt. “I get to take the tests!”

“Us too!” Ida clinked her glass against Imogene’s and Helen’s. All three of the women looked as giddy as kids starting summer vacation.

Betty grinned at me. “I’m going to walk them through the physical tests.”

“And I’ll keep up the math coaching while you’re in space.” Helen punched me in the shoulder. “I never get tired of saying that.”

Nathaniel came up behind me and draped an arm over my shoulder. “I can tell these are your friends, because they’re excited about taking tests.” He kissed my cheek and raised his glass. “Congratulations, ladies. Here’s to the stars.”

Laughing, I clinked my glass against my friends’. “Better yet: Here’s to the Lady Astronaut Club.”