The Surly Bonds

Chapter 1

June 18, 1983. On a modest twenty-five inch, top-of-the-line television set, precocious aspiring junior astronaut Annie, nine years of age, stares intently at the television screen. Her eyes glaze over in awe and wonder at this marvel of modern engineering: the Space Shuttle. White smoke billows from beneath the spacecraft, and news cameras capture this monumental occasion, live. Excitement fills the air as the television announcer exclaims, "And liftoff! Liftoff of STS-7 and America's first woman in space! And the shuttle has cleared the tower."

Laying on the bristly mahogany brown carpet beside Annie, older sister Phoebe refrains from glancing at the television screen, completely engrossed in her oversized DOG book. The proud owners of these two diligent children sit upright on their oatmeal-colored sofa, their backs resting against a brown and orange crocheted blanket, a handmade gift from a relative which they've reluctantly accepted. Richard strokes his thick black mustache with his knuckles, and runs his fingers though dark, coarse hair. He occasionally looks up at the televised coverage of the launch as he marks biology tests with a red pen. He shakes his pen for an ounce of viable ink, scribbling faint markings onto the muted white paper.

Mary scratches her dirty blonde curly hair and adjusts her enormous glasses. She locks eyes on the launch as her hands rest gently on her lap as she switches focus to her two children on the floor. She glances at Richard as he intently grades papers. A smile breaks through his stern face when Annie jerks her head back at him and smiles. Annie's head returns forward to the television screen. "Don't sit so close to the TV. You're going to ruin your eyes," Richard requests.

Annie scoots back from the television set about an inch and replies, "But then I can't see the screen."

Mary clears her throat. "If you keep that up you won't be able to see anything without glasses, like your father."

Richard glares at Mary. Annie leaps from the ground and stands next to Mary. She comments on Annie's excitement, "You get a kick out of that?"

"That was so cool! That never gets old," Annie replies. "Now I'm a shoo-in to become an astronaut!"

Richard responds, "What makes you say that?"

"This is number seven! I've seen them all now! And, if Sally Ride can be the first girl to go into space, then so can I! Well I wouldn't be the first girl in space, but-."

"You know a woman has been in space before, about twenty years ago," Mary informs. "She was a cosmonaut. Now that's something they don't teach you in school."

"That's a Soviet astronaut," Phoebe sarcastically interjects. "And they don't teach us Soviet history because this is A-MER-I-CA."

"I know what that is," Annie sharply retorts.

Mary chuckles. "Is that what you want to be now? An astronaut?"

"It looks like so much fun. And I bet I'd be good at it, too. You think I could go into space?" Annie inquires, brimming with excitement.

Phoebe rolls her eyes. "They don't let you into space if you have to go to summer school."

"That's enough," Mary demands. "I think you can go into space. All it takes is dedication, determination, and hard work."

Richard sets the graded papers down and removes his glasses. "Is that something you want to do?"

"Yeah!" Annie exclaims.

"Okay, because last summer you wanted to be a doctor, and the year before that you wanted to be a police officer, or whoever came into your class to give a guest lecture."

"Yeah, but now I'm really serious about it!"

"Don't discourage her," Mary defends. "If Annie wants to be an astronaut, then she's going to be an astronaut. In the next twenty years, there's going to be space colonies, bases on the moon, maybe even Mars. And they'll need brave people to go on those expeditions."