"But some things are the same," she said quietly. "The very things I didn't want to bring along with us. And I don't mean self-confidence."
I glanced in her direction. Her eyes were closed, her lips looked soft and her body yielding. "Such as?" I asked.
"Morrie mentioned it," she said.
Now I knew what she was talking about. I took a mental grip on myself. Morrie went off his rocker. I'd stay sane. It'd be a tough fight but—
"Did you say something, Bill?" she said, opening her eyes.
I hadn't said anything. She went on:
"Morrie said he was a man and I was a woman. That's something that exists on earth and it existed in space. You are a man and I am a woman here, Bill."
"Damnit, we agreed—"
"Bill Drake," she said. "Let's just say the agreement was made years ago and the statute of limitations has caught up with it. To hell with the agreement. In those bygone days I thought a trip to Mars was a career. I'm a woman, Bill Drake. That's my real career."
I braked the car, stopping in the middle of the big, red desert. There, millions upon millions of miles from that little planet where we had been married, I took her in my arms. My lips tasted hers and we clung to each other.