All he could do would be to apologize over and over. That might not cut it. Anna remembered screwups. This one wasn’t his fault, but he’d be the reason she shambled like a zombie tomorrow.

After the plane took off, the pilot said, “Very sorry we’re late departing Honolulu, folks. We’ll try to make up as much time as we can in the air. Tailwinds will help some. Right now, best guess is we’ll be on the ground in Los Angeles about twenty past one Pacific daylight time. If we can do anything to make that earlier, we will, believe me.”

A few minutes later, a stewardess added, “We do feel bad about the delay. First drink in coach is free for everyone tonight.”

So Jerry had a mai tai, complete with paper umbrella, with his vaguely tropical chicken dinner. For airline food, the meal was pretty decent. After dinner, they darkened the plane for the movie. It was Mary Poppins, which wasn’t his speed. He turned on his overhead lamp and looked at Have Space Suit—Will Travel for a while.

After a while, he found he’d read the same paragraph three times. His body didn’t quite know what time it was supposed to be, but did know he’d been up since what felt like forever. He killed the reading light, leaned against the bulkhead, and tried to sleep.

He didn’t sleep well on planes—who did?—but managed forty minutes’ worth of fitful doze. He wasn’t sure he felt better after waking up. He still didn’t know what time it should have been, and now he was more awake to realize he didn’t know. He wondered if he’d sleep at all once he got back to his place.

He’d worry about that later. He’d worry about lots of things later. Classes at UCLA started on September 23. Since he was coming home now, he wouldn’t need a fall quarter leave of absence after all. He’d have to let Professor Krikorian know he was back. Monday, he told himself. It can wait till Monday.

In the aisle seat, Stephen Dole was watching Mary Poppins with every sign of enjoyment. Maybe all his taste was in his mouth. Maybe he was using the movie the way Jerry had used his old, familiar book: to make time go by without thinking very hard. Jerry wasn’t snoopy enough to ask.

The airliner droned through the night. It was a lot more comfortable than the Warning Star, and a lot quieter. Of course, this plane was made to carry passengers. On the Navy machine, they were only inconvenient freight.