"Are you really glad, Lewis?"
Then I knew. Or, at least, I hoped. "Why, Martha? Aren't you?"
For one long minute she stood beside me, looking up at the Mars we couldn't see. And then she turned to face me once again, and I could see the tears.
"Oh, Lewis, I want to go home!"
Full circle. We had both come full circle these last few hectic weeks on Earth.
"So do I, Martha."
"Do you, Lewis?" And then the tiredness came back to her eyes and she looked away again. "But of course we can't."
Slowly I crossed over to the desk and opened the top drawer and took out the folder that Duane had given me, that last day at the spaceport, just before our ship to Earth had blasted off. Slowly I unfolded the paper that Duane had told me to keep in case we ever wanted it.
"Yes, we can, Martha. We can go back."
"What's that, Lewis?" And then she saw what it was. Her face came alive again, and her eyes were shining. "We're going home?" she whispered. "We're really going home?"