Read Online Taking Off by Eric Kraft - Free Book Online Page A

ASTONISHED to realize how deeply I felt the sting of Matthew’s treachery, and how deeply I feel it even now, so many years after the first stab. At the time it was like a sudden cramp, or the deep, sharp pain of a broken tooth, or a broken bone. Matthew was right in thinking that I would have wanted to go to the summer institute in math and physics. I wanted to go even after he had told me that going was impossible. Perhaps because I wasn’t quite convinced that the deadline had passed, or perhaps because some perverse impulse to increase the pain of missing out compelled me, I visited Mrs. Kippwagen and asked to see the brochure that had lured Matthew to the program.
    â€œI’m afraid it’s too late to apply,” she said.
    â€œI know,” I said. “Matthew told me, but I just want to see what I’m missing. Something in me won’t be able to rest until I know what might have been.”
    She gave me the brochure, and then she added to it a useless application form. I stared at her, searching her face for any evidence of a smile.
    â€œMrs. Kippwagen,” I said slowly, not quite sure whether I would actually ask her what I wanted to ask her.
    â€œYes?” she said, a bit warily.
    â€œWhy didn’t you let me know about this in time to apply? I would have liked to go. I probably could have gotten in, if Matthew got in. My grades are better than his, especially in math and science, and I—”
    â€œThe feeling here,” she said, tapping the eraser of her pencil on the blotter that covered most of the surface of her desk, “within the administration of the Babbington Public School System, was that only one student was likely to be chosen from any one town, and we wanted that student to be the best representative of the system we could put forth.”
    â€œThat’s Matthew?” I asked.
    â€œWe decided that it was Matthew,” she said. The rhythm of the tapping pencil never altered.
    I asked the classic question: “What’s he got that I haven’t got?”
    â€œThe right attitude,” she said without half a moment’s hesitation. “Matthew is a boy who exudes seriousness of purpose. People look at him and say to themselves, ‘This is a sober boy, a boy who has put aside childish things, a boy who probably reads the world news every day and clucks his tongue over that chronicle of human misery—’”
    â€œMrs. Kippwagen,” I asked, “are there any other summer institutes like this—maybe some that I could still apply for?”
    â€œI’ve never heard of anything like this before,” she said. “This is a new idea. It’s a response to a national crisis. It’s no laughing matter.”
    *   *   *
    THE BROCHURE led off with these words:
    Y OUTH OF A MERICA ! U NCLE S AM N EEDS Y OU !
    This is what followed:
    Enemy Powers are training their youth to build rockets, satellites, and fearsome weapons.
    Our intelligence tells us that their youth are far ahead of our youth. This means you!
    We need a new generation of whiz kids who can build rockets, satellites, and fearsome weapons for us!
    That’s why Your Government, working through the privately funded Preparedness Foundation, is sponsoring the Summer Institute in Math, Physics, and Weaponry (SIMPaW) for promising high school students.
    The Summer Institute is a six-week residential program for bright, serious high school students. (NOTE: For purposes of security and secrecy, the Institute is held on the campus of the New Mexico College of Agriculture, Technology, and Pharmacy, and accepted students should refer to themselves as “future pharmacologists of America.”)
    As a student at the Summer Institute, you will pursue a challenging curriculum that will prepare you for the struggle that lies ahead.
    Don’t think that you’ll be sitting in dusty classrooms studying empty theory! Oh, no! You’ll get