Jumping off the Planet

DECISIONS

Later, after stinky had finally fallen asleep, the three of us sat around and talked about Doctor Hidalgo and what he might want. Dad had no idea, but he was sure that the old man wanted something. "No one spends five thousand on dinner without expecting at least a good-night kiss." We all laughed at that. Even I understood the joke.

"Hey, it was good food, and the conversation was interesting—if a little one-sided," Dad concluded.

"I bet he could be a great baritone, if he wanted," Douglas said. "I've never seen anyone go that long without taking a breath."

"I didn't know there were so many different kinds of dessert," I said.

"Yeah, well—don't get used to it," Douglas sounded like a grownup. He turned to Dad. "Are you going to tell him?"

Dad looked suddenly serious. But he didn't look old anymore. He looked relaxed. Sort of. He nodded and turned to me. "It's like this, Charles. Douglas, isn't going back to Earth."

"Huh? What?" I looked to Douglas, dismayed.

"I'm going with Dad. To the moon," he said. "And beyond."

I shook my head. "Yeah—? And what about Mom? What if she has the cops looking for us at Geosynchronous?"

Dad shook his head. "Earthside jurisdiction doesn't apply. As indentured colonists, we're the property of the corporation. If I haven't broken any starside laws, they can't touch me. I checked it out before we left, Charles. As long as we have a valid contract, we're safe."

It sounded too easy, but maybe—I didn't know. There was too much happening for me to figure out. "I don't get it. I thought you said this was a stupid idea."

"Yeah, but staying is stupider. For me, anyway."

"Why?" I demanded.

"It's about my scholarship," Douglas said. "I'm not going to get it."

"I know."

"How do you know?"

"Same way I know about the cops. A kid with a wire and a big mouth."

"Do you know why?" He took a deep breath. "They don't give you the scholarship if you don't need rechanneling."

"Oh," I said. And then, "Oh!"

"It was Mickey," Douglas said.

Mickey? The elevator attendant?! For a moment, I didn't know what to feel. Angry. Or jealous. Or hurt. Or curious. Or just disgusted. While I hadn't been looking, Douglas really had turned into a grownup.

I didn't know what to say, so I said something I'd never said to him before. At least not like this. "I'm sorry, Douglas."

He reached over and put his hand on mine. "There's nothing to be sorry about, Chigger. This is how things turned out."

"I know, but—you wanted to go to UCLA."

"There are good schools in the outbeyond."

"Yeah, but you said it would be slavery—" I shut up. I had the feeling that I didn't know what I was talking about anymore.

"It's an economic decision. You sell what you have. If you don't have anything to sell, you sell who you are. It's only seven years, Chigger. And then I'll be a free man on a new world." He sounded resigned. As if he hadn't finished convincing himself. "And it's not like the old kind of slavery. It's not—not really."

He sounded more like a grownup than I'd ever heard him sound before. I didn't like it very much. It made me feel abandoned, sort of. More alone than before—like someone had taken away my security. Again.

Now, Dad spoke up. "You know what the joke is, Charles? I'd asked Douglas to come with me to the outbeyond, because I wanted him to have the chance at a life without rechannelling. Now—it turns out that it doesn't matter. But it's still a good choice, Charles—I think it's one that will work out all right for him in the long run."

"Yeah," I said, "I sort of see the joke. And I sort of understand. But what about me and Stinky? What happens to us?"

"I really wish you wouldn't call your brother that," Dad said, but that wasn't what he really wanted to say. He tried to run his hand through his hair, he only ended up brushing his near-naked scalp. He looked annoyed, sighed, and started again. "You see, Charles, here's the thing—I was pretty sure that Douglas wasn't going to want to come with me. He'd made that clear back in Mexico. So I'd been counting on him to take you and Bobby back to Earth. That is, if you didn't want to come any farther with me. Now that he's decided to go on, that puts the responsibility on you. Do you want to go back? Or do you want to come with?"

"But what about Sti—Bobby?"

"First we need to know what you want to do."

"If I go back, I'll be living with Mom again, won't I?"

"Your mother is a good woman," Dad said, but he didn't sound like he believed it.

"Oh, yeah," I said. "She's good enough for me to live with, but not good enough for you."

"Point taken," Dad said.

"And if I go with you—"

"When I put my name in the registry, I also put your name in, as a possible. And Douglas and Bobby too. So far, we have one bid from the Sierra Corporation. That's not too bad. But I haven't accepted it yet; I'm waiting to see who else bids. Then we'll pick the best. I'm more valuable if I bring sons, but it'll be your choice to come with me."

"What if nobody else bids?"

"Then we go with Sierra. I'll accept the bid before we disembark."

"What if we don't like the Sierra contract?"

"I took out an insurance policy against that. We're guaranteed a suitable bid or our passage home."

"Oh," I said.

"So you don't have to let that influence your decision."

"But it does," I said. "This really is a Magical Mystery Tour, isn't it?" Just like you said—we're not going to know where we're going until we get there."

"So you're coming?"

I shrugged. "What's to go back to?"

"You know that I'm breaking the law if I try to take you against your will."

"You've already broken the law, Dad."

He nodded. "Consider it a measure of how much I love you."