The Gestation Factor

He had cried at her wedding and cried even more a year later when she had divorced the drunk that her husband had turned out to be but had encouraged her to continue with her life and to forget about him. When she received the letter from NASA accepting her for Astronaut training, he had given her all the support that he could. It had taken over half of the money in his bank account to help her get through college and now he dug in even deeper to help her finance the trip to Houston, Texas where she would begin her training and her new career. Old Ben didn't really mind because he had all the money he needed. She had managed to get a BS in Biology and a MS in Space Science. These two degrees and a lot of hard work had landed her a permanent position at the Space lab. She was interested in space exploration and eagerly applied for any open positions on the space program when they were available.

Elizabeth Rogers had been in Houston only a year when he received a letter from her telling him that she had been accepted in the program that would train astronauts to go to Mars. She sounded so excited and Ben shared that excitement with her but somehow knew just how she felt. As he stood there staring at her picture, he remembered all those things.

The trip to Mars had gone very well and she had only returned about two weeks ago after a two-month trip to the red planet. She had given him her journal that she had kept during that trip. It contained various notes and writings about her experience while at NASA. She had explained that she just wanted him to keep it for her and that if he read it that he might understand what his investment had meant to her success. Ben had placed it beside her picture and there it had stayed since he put it there. His eyes weren't so great anymore and he thought that he might take a look at it when he felt better. When he was tired as he had been for the last few days, his eyes bothered him. The Glaucoma that had plagued him for the last seven years was getting worse. The Laser treatments had helped a little and he could normally see better except when he hadn't had very much sleep. Most of the time this wasn't much of a problem because he had little else to do but sleep.

When Elizabeth came to visit him for a few days (as she had diligently promised to do), he would promptly beg her to read the Journal for him. She could not deny him anything as he could not deny any request that she made to him. It was something between them that had been there since the time she was a little girl and used to sit on his knee as he read her stories from the books he had bought for her. He probably could read the journal himself but having her read it to him would make it seem more real and allow her to share her experiences with him.

Ben picked up the remote from the coffee table in front of him moaning from the pain in his back and legs as he bent over. The trip back up was even more painful as he struggled to straighten up his stiff body. He sat down on the couch in front of the coffee table and as he did so, he pushed the button and the screen of the Television instantly came to life.