Read Online Children of Tomorrow by A. E. van Vogt - Free Book Online Page B

and for a moment it looked as if his reply had changed the direction of her thought.
    ‘Look, honey ’ - her husband spoke patiently - ‘ you know the whole sad story of my experience with women. I told you every unhappy detail before we got married,’
    ‘To hear you describe it, you were the biggest boob who ever came up from the deep,’ she said with asperity.
    ‘Where girls and women were concerned, yes/ said Lane. 'And please note: I never did get your story of your experiences. As I recall it, there was a long silence in that department, whenever the subject came up.’
    ‘Don’t try to get off the subject,’ said the blonde woman.
    The man sat there, and he was visibly in a state of mixed emotions. One emotion that struggled to find a way to be communicated was a desire to point out that it was she, not he, who had gotten off the subject. Another emotion seeking for life of its own was a kind of here-we-go-again anger. But it was the third emotion that won: a sense of helplessness in the face of superior mental footwork.
    He said with a sigh, ‘I’m suit the captain will look after the daughter of a fleet commander on his first time out with her. Now, go to sleep.’
    But it was he who slid down under the sheets, not she. The woman remained in her erect position, and said, ‘Just why did you invite Captain Sennes for dinner?’ She added as an afterthought, ‘So soon after your return.’
    ‘Darling, my having been away doesn’t change what goes on at the Space Control building. That place never stops.’ He turned on his side facing away from her. His voice was slightly muffled, as he continued, ‘All of a sudden - just like that, looking at the guy - I realised that here was a chance for Susan to size up a Real Man, instead of those vicious kids.’ He finished, ‘I thought, maybe that’s the real problem here. The best men are away. Girls and women lose their perspective.’
    ‘I can’t quite believe,’ said the woman, ‘that the thought came to you “just like that”.’- When he did not answer, she also was silent for a while. Then she reached over and turned out the light. But as she was starting to slide down under the sheets, she hesitated. Her voice came out of the darkness: ‘How long is Captain Sennes grounded?’
    Lane’s answer was a sleepy mumble. ‘Originally,’ he said, "eight to ten weeks. But in view of the uproar over the alien thing, the expedition he was leaving on has been postponed. My guess is it will be cancelled. But he’ll be on flight duty in eight weeks, no matter what, I imagine.’
    Another pause. The silence was, however, thoroughly alive with a thought. It was the thought that was in the woman’s tone as she finally said, drawing out each syllable as if the meaning in the words was just too much, ‘E-i-g-h-t - w-e-e-k-s!’
    ‘Go to sleep,’ Lane muttered irritably.
    After still another pause, there was the sound and vaguely visible movement of the figure on the far right finally and reluctantly going down all the way under the sheets.
    There was also a permeating impression that he was not about to be spending her time sleeping.
    In the bedroom, aproximately fifteen minutes took about an hour of subjective time to go by. The same amount of actual time expended itself outside. At the end of those minutes, a man and a girl were to be seen coming along the night street in front of the Lane residence. For a time they were in the shadowed area between two street lights. But as they emerged into the brightness opposite the Lane gate, the two became recognisable as Susan and the space officer whose photograph John Lane had held in his hands that morning., none other than the handsome Captain Peter Sennes.
    As Susan and the captain went through the Lane gate, the Subsurface a block up the street discharged a number of passengers. Two of these, both male figures, started along the street that would presently take them past the Lane residence. At first, in the