Read Online Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle - Free Book Online Page A

going to let you go.”
    â€œYou could have knocked us over with a feather. All of us.”
    â€œWhen Aunt Serena makes up her mind to anything, she doesn’t budge. You do want to go?”
    â€œOf course.”
    â€œI’ll write you and let you know what it’s like, give you a preview.”
    â€œThanks. Geography’s never been my major interest.” Now that there was the possibility that I’d be heading down to Antarctica, too, my interest level had risen radically.
    Â 
    Aunt Serena had the photograph albums open to pictures of a city. “You’ll like San Sebastián,” she assured us, “although there’s not a great deal of the colonial city left and the pollution is appalling. I do think you’ll enjoy the side trip to the pyramids.”
    â€œIt’s not exactly on the required list for marine biologists.” Adam grinned. “But I’ve read about the lost cities in South America, and I don’t want to miss my chance to see one.”
    â€œSan Sebastián’s the capital of Vespugia, and it’s an interesting country, though I gather life is far more difficult there than it used to be, now that they’ve lost their democracy and are under a dictator.”
    â€œMedex Guedder,” Adam said. “I’ve gone to the library
and looked up some stuff. The last president, El Zarco, was evidently a really good guy, progressive and innovative, but after his death there was a coup. The old General Guedder was assassinated by his son, Medex Guedder, who took over.”
    I said, “Suzy’s Spanish teacher says he’s going to bring Vespugia into the twentieth century.”
    Aunt Serena looked sharply at me. “I suppose that depends on how one defines the twentieth century. I hope he’s not teaching Suzy Spanish with a Vespugian accent.” Then she looked back at the album, turning the pages until she came to some pictures of rather weird-looking pyramids, not smooth like the Egyptian ones, but going up in rough steps. “You’ll be in Vespugia just long enough to get to the pyramids. They’re more like the ones in Tikal, in the jungle of Guatemala, than those in Egypt.”
    Adam said, “Too bad Cook’s not leaving till January. It would be fun if Vicky and I could do the first part of the trip together.”
    â€œI think Vicky’s parents would take a dim view of her being away over Christmas,” Aunt Serena said. “This gives them a little more chance to get used to the idea.”
    â€œTrue,” Adam said. “This time next week, I’ll be seeing icebergs.”
    â€œYou’ll pave the way for Vicky.” Aunt Serena and Adam were taking it for granted that I was going to go. “And if your path and Cook’s don’t converge, at least you’ll have a chance to meet Seth while you’re in Port Stanley. He and Cook still look very much alike, though Seth has scars from the time the seal went after him.”
    She turned the page to pictures of what looked like a
small, old-fashioned village. “Port Stanley, the capital. The Falklands get an unduly bad press,” she said. “Granted, it’s usually raw and rainy, but the landscape has the wild beauty of the Scottish wilderness.”
    Adam grinned. “I wouldn’t bad-mouth the Falklands in front of Cook.”
    Aunt Serena agreed. “Not even the weather, which is rather like March here. Cook never seems to feel the cold. The people of the Falklands are still reacting to that attempted takeover by the Argentineans, and they want the world to know they are British, not Argentinean.”
    I didn’t want to seem stupid, but I asked anyhow, “Why did the Argentineans want the Falklands if the weather’s so bad and everything?”
    â€œThey didn’t really want the Falklands,” Aunt Serena said. “Whoever has the Falklands has a sizable slice of the