of all-seeing eyes high above the earth.
But there was another side to these missions that the man or woman in the street never heard
about, probably never even considered. There was a spiritual side to these immense journeys, an
otherworldliness as hallowed as any Christian pilgrimage or Muslim hadj. The men who went
out there, beyond the very confines of the earth, were forever marked by the experience. So few
people had actually undergone the process, the shared pool of firsthand knowledge was so tiny,
that no one who had not actually done it could possibly understand the significance, could ever
appreciate the experience.
And so it was for Jillian and Spencer Armacost.
She dutifully sent her husband off to space—a place she could never follow—and when he
returned he was still her husband. But he was always slightly different, as if he knew secrets
now—secrets he could never share with her or with, any of the uninitiated. It was a tiny, small
brother- and sisterhood, one which excluded the vast majority of the population. A Russian
cosmonaut, grimy and exhausted after six long months on the Russian space station Mir had
more in common with Spencer Armacost than Jillian could ever hope to have.
These complex feelings she rendered down to their most simple parts. “I miss you so much
when you’re gone,” Jillian said with a sigh. “It’s horrible. I never get a full night’s sleep.”
Spencer nodded and mussed her short blond hair. “I miss you, too, Jill. Last time we were up,
Streck said that if I bellyached about ‘you one more minute, he was going to toss my ass off the
ship.” Spencer smiled crookedly. “I don’t think he would really have done it... Someone would
be bound to notice that I went up but somehow failed to make the trip down.”
Jillian harrumphed. “You can tell Streck that your ass is mine and he can keep his hands off it,
thank you very much.”
“Aye, aye, ma’am. Understood,” said Spencer briskly. “I will see to it that the commander is
given the orders as to the disposition of my ass post haste, ma’am.”
Alex Streck was Spencer’s immediate superior and mission commander. Both he and his wife
Natalie were good friends of the Armacosts, despite slight differences in age and the subtle
distinctions of rank.
“Good,” said Jillian with a little laugh. She snuggled in closer, burrowing under his arm and
pushing up against his body, as if to absorb warmth from it. “My class wants you to come in
when you get back. I think they only tolerate me to get to you.” Jillian Armacost was being
unduly modest. She was a wildly popular second grade teacher at a local Florida elementary
school. Though she did have to admit that having a husband who was an astronaut with flight
status probably gave her a little edge when it came to engaging her boisterous and rambunctious
pack of second graders.
Spencer stretched in the bed. “I might be able to arrange a visit,” he said cagily, like a gambler
trying to make the most of a less than perfect hand. “It’ll take a little bit of doing, though,” he
added.
“What will it take?” Jillian asked.
“Well, it wouldn’t hurt for you to be a little nice to me,” said Spencer, smiling.
“How nice?” Jillian asked, as if weighing her chips before she bet anything.
“Oh, you know,” said Spencer airily. “You know me... I’m just an old married man, a little
kindness goes quite a long way with an old coot like me.”
Jillian brushed her lips against his and reached down under the sheet, her hand closing around
what she discovered there. Jillian’s eyes went wide, as if
she were the virginal heroine of a nineteenth century novel.
‘Why, Mr. Armacost, whatever do you have there?”
Spencer said through a stiff upper lip, “Why, Mrs. Armeacost, whatever do you mean?”