Episode 2

"Oh, Harry!" The mother held onto her husband and daughter. "Are you sure, Laura?" asked the father quietly.

Laura wept. " We're stranded on Mars, forever and ever!" For a long time there was only the sound of wind in the late afternoon. Alone, though Bittering. Only a thousand of us here. No way back. No way. Sweat poured from his face and his hands and his body; he was drenched in cry, "No, your lying! The rockets will come back!" Said, " The rockets will get through someday."

" Father, what will we do?"

" Go about our business, of course. Raise crops and children. Wait, keep things going until the war ends and rockets come again."

The two boys stepped out onto porch.

" Children' he said, sitting there, looking beyond them, "I've something to tell you."

"We know," they said.

He looked with dismay at their house. "Even the house. The fog at night. The boards, all warped out of shape. It's not an Earthman's house any more."

"Oh, your imagination!"

He put his coat and tie. "I'm going into town. We've got to do something now. I'll be back."

"Wait, Harry!" his wife cried.

But he was gone.

In town on the shadowy step of the grocery store, the men sat with their hands on their knees, conversing with great leisure and ease.

Mr. Bittering wanted to fire a pistol in the air.

What are you doing, you fools! He thought. Sitting here! You've heard the news - we're stranded on this planet. Well, move! Aren't you afraid? What are you going to do?

"Hello, Harry," said everyone.

"Look,"  he said to them. " You did hear the news, the other day, didn't you?"they nodded and laughed. " Sure. Sure, Harry."

" What are you going to do about it?"

" Do, Harry, do? What can we do?"

" Built a rocket, that's what!"

" A rocket, Harry?. To go back to all that trouble? Oh, Harry!" "But you must want to go back. Have you noticed the peach blossoms, the onions, the grass?"

" Why, yes, Harry, seems we did," said one of the men. " Doesn't it scare you?"

"Can't recall that it did much, Harry."

"Idiots."

" Now, Harry."

Bittering wanted to cry, " You've got to work with me. If we stay here, we'll all change, the air, don't you smell it? Something in the air. A Martian virus, maybe; some seed or a pollen. Listen to me!"

They stared at him.

" Sam," he said to one of them.

" Yes, Harry?"

" Will you help me built a rocket?"

" Harry i got a whole load of metal and blue paints. You want to work in my metal shop on a rocket your welcome. I'll sell you that metal for five hundred dollars. You should be able to construct a right pretty rocket, if you work alone, in about thirty years."

Everyone laughed.

" Don't laugh."

Sam looked at him with quiet good humor.

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