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He walked forward, tearing off his clothes as he went

The Rocket Man

THE electrical fireflies were hovering above Mother's dark hair to light her path She stood in her bedroo out at me as I passed in the silent hall "Youwill help me keep him here this time, won't you?" she asked

"I guess so," I said

"Please" The fireflies cast ht on her white face "This tiain"

"All right," I said, after standing there a ood; it's no use"

She went away, and the fireflies, on their electric circuits, fluttered after her like an errant constellation, showing her hoalk in darkness I heard her say, faintly, "We've got to try, anyway"

Other fireflies followed ht of my body cut a circuit in the bed, the fireflies winked out It was ht, and my mother and I waited, our rooan to rockstopped I didn't want to sleep I didn't want to sleep at all

This night was no different frohts and feel the cool air turn hot, feel the fire in the wind, or see the walls burned a bright color for an instant, and then we knew his rocket was over our house--his rocket, and the oak trees swaying fro, and mother in her room Her voice would come to me over the interroom radio: "Did you feel it?"

And I would answer, "That was hiht"

That wasover our town, a small tohere space rockets never ca, "Now Dad's landed in Springfield, now he's on the tar the papers, now he's in the helicopter, now he's over the river, now the hills, now he's settling the helicopter in at the little airport at Green Village hereAnd the night would be half over when, in our separate cool beds, Mother and I would be listening, listening "Now he's walking down Bell Street He alalksnever takes a cabnow across the park, now turning the corner of Oakhurst andnow

I liftedcloser and closer, s in at our house, up the porch steps And ere both s in the cool darkness, Monition, speak a quiet word of welcome, and shut downstairs

Three hours later I turned the brass knob to their roo as the space between the planets, my hand out to reach the s bed Taking it, I ran silently to , He won't tell me, he doesn't want me toknow

And from the opened case spilled his black unifor here or there, distantly, in the material I kneaded the dark stuff in my warm hands; I smelled the planet Mars, an iron sreen ivy smell, and the planet Mercury, a scent of sulphur and fire; and I could smell the milky moon and the hardness of stars I pushed the uniforrade shop that year, set it whirling Soon a fine powder precipitated into a retort This I slid under a microscope And while my parents slept unaware, and while our house was asleep, all the automatic bakers and servers and robot cleaners in an electric slumber, I stared down upon brilliant listening like worlds themselves which drew me down the tube a billion miles into space, at terrific accelerations

At dawn, exhausted with my journey and fearful of discovery, I returned the boxed unifor room