Namir returned with the plastic boards then, and looked at her in what I think is a sexual way when she got out of the water. I wondered if they’d begun mating but had learned not to ask.

Over the next four days, they used boards like that to build us a big waterproof box, large enough for both of us to stand in, and improvised a pump that circulated the water and filtered it.

It will make the gravity so much more manageable. And Snowbird and I will be the cleanest Martians in history.

Chapter 9 - ADULTERY FOR ADULTS

9

ADULTERY FOR ADULTS

1 June 2088

Gone for a month now. A real-time view to the stern shows the Sun as the brightest star in the sky; the Earth is of course invisible.

The only milestone of note, dear diary, is that Elza has apparently made her first sexual conquest—I say “apparently” because who knows? Though if it had been Paul, I think he would have told me, or politely asked me first.

It was Moonboy. Meryl told me after we finished an especially frustrating session with the Martians, tracking down their elusive and totally irregular verb forms.

We were alone at the coffee tap. “So do you know about Moonboy and Elza?”

“No, what?” I knew it wasn’t billiards, of course.

“Well, they got together yesterday. In the fucking sense, I mean.”

An odd choice, I thought, but she had to start somewhere. “Is it, um, I mean, is it a big deal to you?”

“More so than I let him know when he told me. It’s always been theoretically okay. But this is the first time . . . for him.”

“Not for you?” I pretended I didn’t know.

She smiled and shook her head. “Back on Mars.” I knew of two men, one of them married, some years ago. Mars is like a small village with no place to hide.

“Think it’s a one-time thing?”

“It was already a two-time thing when he told me.” She looked around. “It may be becoming a three-time thing as we speak. But no, I don’t think they’re going to get married and run off to the big city.”

“I’ve been waiting for that shoe to drop myself,” I said. “The way Paul looks at her when he thinks I’m not watching.”

“But you’ve always been, what, open?”

“Sure, for years, he was in Mars and I was in Little Mars. We didn’t actually marry until we got the lottery and were going to have children. Before that, we both had considerable variety.”

“I bet you did.” She grinned. “Being famous and all.”

“Well, guys had long layovers on their way to Mars.”

“Layovers.”

“Probably half of them just wanted to be able to say ‘I fucked The Mars Girl.’ ”

“The price of fame. And Paul the most famous pilot in history? He was not exactly a monk, if I recall correctly.”