“I knew about the expedition,” Ted’s father said. “That’s why I want to take him. I thought we’d accept him into our family, so that when the news came to him, he might not take it so hard. I guess I’ve got a soft spot in my heart for the pioneers on Mars, being a scientist myself.”
“It’s a grand thing you’re doing,” Mr. Collins said.
When Mr. Collins left, Mrs. Kenton said to her husband, “We’ll have to tell Randy about his father ourselves, won’t we?”
“In due time,” Dr. Kenton replied, “after he comes to know us better. It’ll be easier that way.”
“Randy will be able to tell us all about Mars, since he’s from there,” Jill said excitedly.
Ted agreed with his sister and decided then that Randy was going to make a very welcome addition to the Kenton household.
Less than an hour later, the Shooting Star was in the heavens again, powering toward the distant red beacon of Mars and leaving behind the rugged wastelands of the Moon.
He was going to Mars.
Randy became a much more chipper person than the silent boy the Kentons had first met. New life seemed to have flowed into him. He was going to Mars, the land of his birth and the place where he believed his beloved father to be—alive. Ted felt sorry for the boy in the days that followed, whenever he talked about the good times he and his father had had together. When the time came to tell him about his father, it was not going to be an easy job for Ted’s dad.