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diff --git a/26957.txt b/26957.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c7943e7 --- /dev/null +++ b/26957.txt @@ -0,0 +1,641 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Star Mother, by Robert F. Young + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Star Mother + +Author: Robert F. Young + +Release Date: October 18, 2008 [EBook #26957] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STAR MOTHER *** + + + + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +STAR MOTHER + +By ROBERT F. YOUNG + + + _A touching story of the most + enduring love in all eternity._ + + +That night her son was the first star. + +She stood motionless in the garden, one hand pressed against her heart, +watching him rise above the fields where he had played as a boy, where +he had worked as a young man; and she wondered whether he was thinking +of those fields now, whether he was thinking of her standing alone in +the April night with her memories; whether he was thinking of the +verandahed house behind her, with its empty rooms and silent halls, that +once upon a time had been his birthplace. + +Higher still and higher he rose in the southern sky, and then, when he +had reached his zenith, he dropped swiftly down past the dark edge of +the Earth and disappeared from sight. A boy grown up too soon, riding +round and round the world on a celestial carousel, encased in an +airtight metal capsule in an airtight metal chariot ... + +_Why don't they leave the stars alone?_ she thought. _Why don't they +leave the stars to God?_ + + * * * * * + +The general's second telegram came early the next morning: Explorer XII +_doing splendidly. Expect to bring your son down sometime tomorrow_. + +She went about her work as usual, collecting the eggs and allocating +them in their cardboard boxes, then setting off in the station wagon on +her Tuesday morning run. She had expected a deluge of questions from her +customers. She was not disappointed. "Is Terry really way up there all +alone, Martha?" "Aren't you _scared_, Martha?" "I do hope they can get +him back down all right, Martha." She supposed it must have given them +quite a turn to have their egg woman change into a star mother +overnight. + +She hadn't expected the TV interview, though, and she would have avoided +it if it had been politely possible. But what could she do when the line +of cars and trucks pulled into the drive and the technicians got out and +started setting up their equipment in the backyard? What could she say +when the suave young man came up to her and said, "We want you to know +that we're all very proud of your boy up there, ma'am, and we hope +you'll do us the honor of answering a few questions." + +Most of the questions concerned Terry, as was fitting. From the way the +suave young man asked them, though, she got the impression that he was +trying to prove that her son was just like any other average American +boy, and such just didn't happen to be the case. But whenever she opened +her mouth to mention, say, how he used to study till all hours of the +night, or how difficult it had been for him to make friends because of +his shyness, or the fact that he had never gone out for +football--whenever she started to mention any of these things, the suave +young man was in great haste to interrupt her and to twist her words, by +requestioning, into a different meaning altogether, till Terry's +behavior pattern seemed to coincide with the behavior pattern which the +suave young man apparently considered the norm, but which, if followed, +Martha was sure, would produce not young men bent on exploring space but +young men bent on exploring trivia. + +A few of the questions concerned herself: Was Terry her only child? +("Yes.") What had happened to her husband? ("He was killed in the Korean +War.") What did she think of the new law granting star mothers top +priority on any and all information relating to their sons? ("I think +it's a fine law ... It's too bad they couldn't have shown similar +humanity toward the war mothers of World War II.") + + * * * * * + +It was late in the afternoon by the time the TV crew got everything +repacked into their cars and trucks and made their departure. Martha +fixed herself a light supper, then donned an old suede jacket of Terry's +and went out into the garden to wait for the sun to go down. According +to the time table the general had outlined in his first telegram, +Terry's first Tuesday night passage wasn't due to occur till 9:05. But +it seemed only right that she should be outside when the stars started +to come out. Presently they did, and she watched them wink on, one by +one, in the deepening darkness of the sky. She'd never been much of a +one for the stars; most of her life she'd been much too busy on Earth to +bother with things celestial. She could remember, when she was much +younger and Bill was courting her, looking up at the moon sometimes; and +once in a while, when a star fell, making a wish. But this was +different. It was different because now she had a personal interest in +the sky, a new affinity with its myriad inhabitants. + +And how bright they became when you kept looking at them! They seemed to +come alive, almost, pulsing brilliantly down out of the blackness of the +night ... And they were different colors, too, she noticed with a start. +Some of them were blue and some were red, others were yellow ... green +... orange ... + +It grew cold in the April garden and she could see her breath. There was +a strange crispness, a strange clarity about the night, that she had +never known before ... She glanced at her watch, was astonished to see +that the hands indicated two minutes after nine. Where had the time +gone? Tremulously she faced the southern horizon ... and saw her Terry +appear in his shining chariot, riding up the star-pebbled path of his +orbit, a star in his own right, dropping swiftly now, down, down, and +out of sight beyond the dark wheeling mass of the Earth ... She took a +deep, proud breath, realized that she was wildly waving her hand and let +it fall slowly to her side. Make a wish! she thought, like a little +girl, and she wished him pleasant dreams and a safe return and wrapped +the wish in all her love and cast it starward. + + * * * * * + +Sometime tomorrow, the general's telegram had said-- + +That meant sometime today! + +She rose with the sun and fed the chickens, fixed and ate her breakfast, +collected the eggs and put them in their cardboard boxes, then started +out on her Wednesday morning run. "My land, Martha, I don't see how you +stand it with him way up there! Doesn't it get on your _nerves_?" ("Yes +... Yes, it does.") "Martha, when are they bringing him back down?" +("Today ... _Today_!") "It must be wonderful being a star mother, +Martha." ("Yes, it is--in a way.") + +Wonderful ... and terrible. + +If only he can last it out for a few more hours, she thought. If only +they can bring him down safe and sound. Then the vigil will be over, and +some other mother can take over the awesome responsibility of having a +son become a star-- + +If only ... + + * * * * * + +The general's third telegram arrived that afternoon: _Regret to inform +you that meteorite impact on satellite hull severely damaged +capsule-detachment mechanism, making ejection impossible. Will make +every effort to find another means of accomplishing your son's return._ + +Terry!-- + +See the little boy playing beneath the maple tree, moving his tiny cars +up and down the tiny streets of his make-believe village; the little +boy, his fuzz of hair gold in the sunlight, his cherub-cheeks pink in +the summer wind-- + +_Terry!--_ + +Up the lane the blue-denimed young man walks, swinging his thin tanned +arms, his long legs making near-grownup strides over the sun-seared +grass; the sky blue and bright behind him, the song of cicada rising and +falling in the hazy September air-- + +_Terry ..._ + +_--probably won't get a chance to write you again before take-off, but +don't worry, Ma. The _Explorer XII_ is the greatest bird they ever +built. Nothing short of a direct meteorite hit can hurt it, and the odds +are a million to one ..._ + +_Why don't they leave the stars alone? Why don't they leave the stars to +God?_ + + * * * * * + +The afternoon shadows lengthened on the lawn and the sun grew red and +swollen over the western hills. Martha fixed supper, tried to eat, and +couldn't. After a while, when the light began to fade, she slipped into +Terry's jacket and went outside. + +Slowly the sky darkened and the stars began to appear. At length _her_ +star appeared, but its swift passage blurred before her eyes. Tires +crunched on the gravel then, and headlights washed the darkness from the +drive. A car door slammed. + +Martha did not move. _Please God_, she thought, _let it be Terry_, even +though she knew that it couldn't possibly be Terry. Footsteps sounded +behind her, paused. Someone coughed softly. She turned then-- + +"Good evening, ma'am." + +She saw the circlet of stars on the gray epaulet; she saw the stern +handsome face; she saw the dark tired eyes. And she knew. Even before he +spoke again, she knew-- + +"The same meteorite that damaged the ejection mechanism, ma'am. It +penetrated the capsule, too. We didn't find out till just a while +ago--but there was nothing we could have done anyway ... Are you all +right, ma'am?" + +"Yes. I'm all right." + +"I wanted to express my regrets personally. I know how you must feel." + +"It's all right." + +"We will, of course, make every effort to bring back his ... remains ... +so that he can have a fitting burial on Earth." + +"No," she said. + +"I beg your pardon, ma'am?" + +She raised her eyes to the patch of sky where her son had passed in his +shining metal sarcophagus. Sirius blossomed there, blue-white and +beautiful. She raised her eyes still higher--and beheld the vast +parterre of Orion with its central motif of vivid forget-me-nots, its +far-flung blooms of Betelguese and Rigel, of Bellatrix and Saiph ... And +higher yet--and there flamed the exquisite flower beds of Taurus and +Gemini, there burgeoned the riotous wreath of the Crab; there lay the +pulsing petals of the Pleiades ... And down the ecliptic garden path, +wafted by a stellar breeze, drifted the ocher rose of Mars ... + +"No," she said again. + +The general had raised his eyes, too; now, slowly, he lowered them. "I +think I understand, ma'am. And I'm glad that's the way you want it ... +The stars _are_ beautiful tonight, aren't they." + +"More beautiful than they've ever been," she said. + + * * * * * + +After the general had gone, she looked up once more at the vast and +variegated garden of the sky where her son lay buried, then she turned +and walked slowly back to the memoried house. + + +THE END + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + + This etext was produced from _Amazing Stories_ January 1959. + Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S. + copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and + typographical errors have been corrected without note. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Star Mother, by Robert F. Young + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK STAR MOTHER *** + +***** This file should be named 26957.txt or 26957.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/6/9/5/26957/ + +Produced by Greg Weeks, Stephen Blundell and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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