een trips to the powder room, "It must
take a lot of courage to sign up for something like that. Were you
scientifically inclined in school? Don't you have to know an awful lot
to be a space-flyer? Did you ever see any of those little monkey
characters they say live on Mars? I read an article about how they lived
in little cities of pup-tents or something like that--only they didn't
make them, they grew them. Funny! Ever see those? That trip must have
been a real drag, I bet. What is it, nine months? You couldn't have a
baby! Excuse me-- Say, tell me. All that time, how'd you--well, manage
things? I mean didn't you ever have to go to the you-know or anything?"

"We managed," I said.

She giggled, and that reminded her, so she went to the powder room
again. I thought about getting up and leaving while she was gone, but
what was the use of that? I'd only pick up somebody else.

It was nearly midnight. A couple of minutes wouldn't hurt. I reached in
my pocket for the little box of pills they give us--it isn't refillable,
but we get a new prescription in the mail every month, along with the
pension check. The label on the box said:

CAUTION

_Use only as directed by physician. Not to be taken by persons
suffering heart condition, digestive upset or circulatory disease.
Not to be used in conjunction with alcoholic beverages._

I took three of them. I don't like to start them before midnight, but
anyway I stopped shaking.

I closed my eyes, and then I was on the ship again. The noise in the bar
became the noise of the rockets and the air washers and the sludge
sluicers. I began to sweat, although this place was air-conditioned,
too.

I could hear Wally whistling to himself the way he did, the sound
muffled by his oxygen mask and drowned in the rocket noise, but still
perfectly audible. The tune was _Sophisticated Lady_. Sometimes it was
_Easy to Love_ and sometimes _Chasing Shadows_, but mostly
_Sophisticated Lady_. He was from Juilliard.

Somebody sneezed, and it sounded just like Chowderhead sneezing. You
know how everybody sneezes according to his own individual style?
Chowderhead had a ladylike little sneeze; it went _hutta_, real quick,
all through the mouth, no nose involved. The captain went _Hrasssh_;
Wally was Ashoo, ashoo, _ashoo_. Gilvey was _Hutch_-uh. Sam didn't
sneeze much, but he sort of coughed and sprayed, and that was worse.

Sometimes I used to think about killing Sam by tying hi