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

Antarctic pie.”
    I undoubtedly looked as dumb as I felt. Aunt Serena turned to the back of the album and pulled out a small black-and-white map. In the center was the South Pole, and raying out from it to a large circle were lines forming triangular wedges.
    â€œIt really does look like slices of pie,” Adam said. “Very valuable pie. And the Falklands do give Great Britain a hunk that the Argentineans would like to have.”
    â€œAnd so would the Vespugians,” Aunt Serena said, “though they’ve had the sense not to go to war for it. I feel a lot less secure about Vespugia than I did when El Zarco was president.” She turned back to the pictures. “That’s Government House.” She pointed to a rambling white building.
“You’ll like Rusty and Lucy Leeds, both of you. Rusty’s mother was an old school friend of mine, and we’ve kept in touch, partly because of Cook and Seth.”
    The snapshots meant a lot more to me, now that I’d actually be visiting the places pictured.
    We had tea, and then Adam and I walked out to the car. He said, “What I’d really like to do is just go straight to LeNoir Station and get going on my research, but this is a once-ina-lifetime trip, so I shouldn’t be impatient. It means a lot to Aunt Serena, and Port Stanley is one of the ports of call. I’m glad we’ll be going to the same places. It will be fun to compare notes.”
    It wasn’t nearly as hard to say goodbye to him as it would have been if I hadn’t had the very real hope that I’d see him at LeNoir Station.
    Â 
    Finally, one night the next week, when I was reading in bed, Mother and Daddy came in to me.
    â€œVicky,” my father said, “you really do want to go on this trip to Antarctica?”
    â€œI do.” I put my book down. I knew my parents weren’t wildly enthusiastic about my going that far away, and right in the middle of the school year, too.
    Daddy touched my shoulder gently. “It is enormously generous of Aunt Serena.”
    Mother added, “We want you to go, Vicky. I’m managing to squash all my protective mother-hen instincts.”
    â€œI’m sixteen.”

    â€œYes, and a responsible sixteen. But Antarctica is a very long way away.”
    My father sat in my desk chair. “Your mother and I agree that a chance like this is not likely to come again, but remember, there’ll be nobody your age on the Argosy . You’ll be by far the youngest, probably the only young person—”
    â€œI know that, Dad. It’s okay. I don’t underestimate the older generation. I’ve talked more with Grandfather and Aunt Serena than I ever have with anyone my own age.”—Except Adam, I thought, but did not add.
    My father smiled. “It’s a wonderful opportunity. Make the most of every minute of it.”
    â€œThanks,” I said. “I mean, really, thanks a million.”
    â€œThank Aunt Serena,” Mother said.
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    Preparing to go to Antarctica was far more on my mind than Christmas. I had to get a passport, and that was exciting in itself. Then there were shots, most of which I wouldn’t get till early January: tetanus, and finally, just a couple of days before leaving, a gamma globulin shot because of hepatitis. Aunt Serena told me I had to be very careful not to drink the water in San Sebastián, not even use it to brush my teeth, and I shouldn’t eat any fruit or salad or anything that wasn’t cooked. Once I was on the Argosy, the food would be safe.
    I got a wonderful long letter from Adam. The postmark was San Sebastián, and the envelope was dirty and looked as though it had been through one of our post-office machines that tend to rip mail. But the letter itself was not torn.

    Dear Vicky:
    It’s so hot here in San Sebastián that I’m dropping beads of sweat onto the page—not tears. December is midsummer here.