Desire No More

He had but one ambition, one desire: to pilot the first manned rocket to the moon. And he was prepared as no man had ever prepared himself before....
DESIRE NO MORE
by Algis Budrys
( illustrated by Milton Luros )
Desire no more than to thy lot may fall....
—Chaucer
THE SMALL young man looked at his father, and shook his head.
But you've got to learn a trade, his father said, exasperated. I can't afford to send you to college; you know that.
I've got a trade, he answered.
His father smiled thinly. What? he asked patronizingly.
I'm a rocket pilot, the boy said, his thin jaw stretching the skin of his cheeks.
His father laughed in the way the boy had learned to anticipate and hate. Yeah, he said. He leaned back in his chair and laughed so hard that the Sunday paper slipped off his wide lap and fell to the floor with an unnoticed stiff rustle.