I left her at the public library and headed, with serious misgivings, in the direction of my family home.
Ganymede City is a drab industrial town of a million or so people, with very little excitement or glamor beneath its turquoise dome. The chamber of commerce used to give a big buildup to the view of Jupiter and the good job opportunities when they first wanted to attract workers from Earth. Those poor shnooks soon got fed up with astronomy when the boom fizzled out and the only jobs left were in the metal refineries.
I hate my father who is a jerk just like the rest of them. Never quite became shop foreman. Never quite able to buy his own house. Never quite saved enough to move his family to Saturn's ring where the real boom took place. And always so damn preachy to me and the younger kids. And my mother disgusted me too for just sitting around and taking it all those years.
"What are you doing here?" my father demanded. "You're supposed to be on your way to Mars."
"Vera, what happened?" my mother whined. "Why aren't you on the ship?"
"I need a little more money. Seventy-five solars."
"What do you mean, a little more money?" said my father angrily. "What happened to the money we gave you?"
"And the tickets," my mother, anxiously. "You promised me you'd go to school. What did you do with the tickets?"
"Don't worry. I got a refund. It's all in a safe place."
My father got menacing. "Say, just what are you up to? You haven't gone back to that gang by any chance?"