Nora blinked. The inventor of the cyclotron wanted to hire her. She wasn’t due to graduate for another two months, and already she was a sought-after scientist. She re-read the letter twice more, returned it to the envelope, and tucked it away in her locker. Was she interested? You bet she was!

“Mary Elizabeth Trask, you’d better have finished your homework!” Mabel Trask hollered from the yard where she was hanging the laundry to dry.

“I’ve got to go. Mother is on a rampage,” Mary whispered into the telephone.

“Can I see you tonight? We could go for a drive.”

She rolled her eyes. “Sam, I told you, I need to study for my English test. I’ve simply got to do well. Graduation depends on it.” Mary gazed furtively out the window. “She’s coming. ’Bye.” She hung up the phone without waiting for a reply.

Her mother poked her head in the doorway. “Well? Have you finished all your assignments? I thought I heard you on the phone. Was that Samuel? He’s such a nice boy. He’ll make a good husband.”

“That’s it, Mother.” Mary’s nostrils flared. “If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a thousand times, I’m too young to get married. For gosh sakes, I’m only eighteen. I’m not even out of high school yet and you’ve already got me married off.”

Mabel pursed her lips and put her hands on her hips. “I married your father the day after graduation; God bless him and bring him home safely from the war. That’s worked out just fine. When a good man shows interest and wants to marry you, thank your lucky stars and say yes.”

“I’m not having this conversation with you, Mother. I have a test to study for.” She stomped out of the kitchen and up the stairs to her room, where she slammed the door and flopped down on the bed.

For the past eighteen months, ever since her father had enlisted in the Army and gone off to fight, Mary’s mother had been pressuring her to hitch her star to Sam. Yes, he was a nice boy, but she wasn’t ready to settle down. There was a great big world out there she hadn’t explored yet. If she married Sam, she’d never get farther than the Philadelphia city limits. She was sure of it.

She imagined herself nursing an infant and pregnant with another. The image turned her stomach. Motherhood and domesticity weren’t for her. Then again, schooling wasn’t for her, either.

“Mary, Mary quite contrary, what in the world are you going to do?” She sighed dramatically and sat up. “Crack open that school book and try to make sense of it, that’s what.”