“I’m in the pay phone across the street because I assumed you would be a moron and not let me in,” Vanessa said.

Joan ran to the window.

There, at the phone, was Vanessa looking up at her. “No. Do you hear me?” Vanessa said. “No.”

“Vanessa, they won’t—”

“I listened to you. And you wouldn’t let me talk. But now it’s my turn. And you don’t get to talk. My answer is no. Absolutely not. I don’t care what Antonio said. I don’t care what they can take from me. I don’t care if they never let me set foot in the fucking space shuttle ever again. No. I will not leave you and Frances. I will not. And you don’t get to tell me what to do.”

Joan wiped a tear from her eye and watched Vanessa yell at her from the pay phone.

“You have no right to tell me I don’t get a say in this,” Vanessa said. “And you have no right to do to me what you did tonight.”

“I’m sorry,” Joan said, “But—”

“I didn’t ask for this!” Vanessa shouted. “I didn’t ask to meet your niece and help you deal with your stupid sister and meet your parents and imagine a life where the two of us could have things that I never dreamed the world would let me have! I didn’t ask for that! That was you!”

“I—”

“And now, when one asshole scares you, you’re going to give it all up? No! I don’t accept it. I love you. And I love Frances, too, and you don’t get to take her away from me. Just because you’re scared. Or just because you think you know what’s best for me.”

“All you’ve ever wanted is to fly the shuttle,” Joan said.

“All I ever wanted—past tense,” Vanessa said. “But you changed what I wanted, and what I thought was possible.”

Vanessa started losing track of her breath as she broke down. “What an awful thing to do to a person! To make them believe they can have the things they never believed they deserved. And then take it away. What an awful thing.”

“I’m sorry,” Joan said. “I’m so sorry.”

Joan, staring out the window, saw Vanessa looking at up her. “Please don’t make me go,” Vanessa said, crying harder now. “Please.”

“But you might lose everything you dreamed of.”

“Then I’ll lose it,” Vanessa said. “Let them take it. Just don’t let them take you.”

Tears fell down Joan’s face.

“Will you come back up here?” Joan asked.

“Will you let me in and let me talk?” Vanessa asked.

“Yes,” Joan said. “Of course.”