Jim doesn’t know what to say to that. He can see the logic of the argument. And that fearful strain in his father’s voice … His anger drains out of him, and he’s amazed, even frightened, at what he has been saying. They’ve gone so far beyond the boundaries of their ordinary discourse, there doesn’t seem any way back.

And suddenly he recalls his plans for the night: rendezvous with Arthur, assault on Laguna Space Research. He can’t stand across from Dennis with that in his mind, it makes him sick with trembling.

Dennis leans against the car, face down, the averted expression as still as stone. He’s lost in his own thoughts. His hands are methodically working with the wrench, loosening a nut on the next point casing. Jim tries to say something, and the words catch in his throat. What was it? He can’t remember. The silence stretches out, and really there’s nothing he can say. Nothing he can say.

“I—I’ll go in and tell Mom you’re about ready to eat?”

Dennis nods.

Unsteadily Jim walks inside. Lucy is chopping vegetables for the salad, over by the sink, in front of the kitchen window that has the view of the carport. Jim walks over and stands next to her. Through the window he can see Dennis’s side and back.

Lucy sniffs, and Jim sees she is red-eyed. “So did he tell you what happened down at work?” she asks, chopping hard and erratically.

“No! What happened?”

“I saw you talking out there. You shouldn’t argue with him on a day like today!” She goes to blow her nose.

“Why, what happened?”

“You know they lost that big proposal Dad was working on.”

“Sort of, I guess. Weren’t they appealing it?”

“Yes. And they were doing pretty well with that, too, until today.” And Lucy tells him as much as she knows of it all, pieced together from Dennis’s curt, bitter remarks.

“No!” Jim says more than once during the story. “No!”

“Yes. That’s what he said.” She puts a fist to her mouth. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him as down as this in my whole life.”

“But—but he just stood out there … he just stood out there and defended the whole thing! All of it!”

Lucy nods, sniffs, starts chopping vegetables.

Stunned, Jim stares out the window at his father, who is meticulously tightening a nut, as if tamping down the last pieces of a puzzle.

“Mom, I’ve gotta go.”

“What?”

He’s already to the front door. Got to get away.

“Jim!”

But he’s gone, out the door, almost running. For a moment he can’t find his car key. Then he’s found it, he’s off and away. Tracking away at full speed.