I found out there was just the one patrol – not many scouts on the Moon, I suppose.

Dad and Mr. Latham joined us just as we finished the tour while Mr. Perrin – that's our guide – was announcing the trip outside. «The conducted tour of Rutherford,» he said, talking as if it were a transcription, «includes a trip by spacesuit out on the surface of the Moon, without extra charge, to see the Devil's Graveyard and the site of the Great Disaster of 1984. The trip is optional. There is nothing particularly dangerous about it and we've never had anyone hurt, but the Commission requires that you sign a separate release for your own safety if you choose to make this trip. The trip takes about one hour. Those preferring to remain behind will find movies and refreshments in the coffee shop.»

Dad was rubbing his hands together. «This is for me,» he announced. «Mr. Latham, I'm glad we got back in time. I wouldn't have missed this for the world.»

«You'll enjoy it,» Mr. Latham agreed, «and so will you, Mrs. Logan. I'm tempted to come along myself.»

«Why don't you?» Dad asked.

«No, I want to have the papers ready for you and the Director to sign when you get back and before you leave for Luna City.»

«Why knock yourself out?» Dad urged him. «If a man's word is no good, his signed contract is no better. You can mail the stuff to me at New York.»

Mr. Latham shook his head. «No, really – I've been out on the surface dozens of times. But I'll come along and help you into your spacesuits.»

Mother said, «Oh dear,» she didn't think she'd better go; she wasn't sure she could stand the thought of being shut up in a spacesuit and besides glaring sunlight always gave her a headache.

Dad said, «Don't be silly, my dear; it's the chance of a lifetime,» and Mr. Latham told her that the filters on the helmets kept the light from being glaring. Mother always objects and then gives in. I suppose women just don't have any force of character. Like the night before – earth-night, I mean, Luna City time – she had bought a fancy moonsuit to wear to dinner in the Earth-View room at the hotel, then she got cold feet. She complained to Dad that she was too plump to dare to dress like that.

Well, she did show an awful lot of skin. Dad said, «Nonsense, my dear. You look ravishing.» So she wore it and had a swell time, especially when a pilot tried to pick her up.

It was like that this time. She came along. We went into the outfitting room and I looked around while Mr. Perrin was getting them all herded in and having the releases signed. There was the door to the airlock to the surface at the far end, with a bull's-eye window in it and another one like it in the door beyond. You could peek through and see the surface of the Moon beyond, looking hot and bright and sort of improbable, in spite of the amber glass in the windows. And there was a double row of spacesuits hanging up, looking like empty men. I snooped around until Mr. Perrin got around to our party.

«We can arrange to leave the youngster in the care of the hostess in the coffee shop,» he was telling Mother. He reached down and tousled the runt's hair. The runt tried to bite him and he snatched his hand away in a hurry.

«Thank you, Mr. Perkins,» Mother said, «I suppose that's best – though perhaps I had better stay behind with him.»

«'Perrin' is the name,» Mr. Perrin said mildly. «It won't be necessary. The hostess will take good care of him.»

Why do adults talk in front of kids as if they couldn't understand English? They should have just shoved him into the coffee shop. By now the runt knew he was being railroaded. He looked around belligerently. «I go, too,» he said loudly. «You promised me.»

«Now Baby Darling,» Mother tried to stop him. «Mother Dear didn't tell you – « But she was just whistling to herself; the runt turned on the sound effects.

«You said I could go where Dickie went; you promised me when I was sick. You promised me you promised me – « and on and on, his voice getting higher and louder all the time.

Mr. Perrin looked embarrassed. Mother said, «Richard, you'll just have to deal with your child. After all, you were the one who promised him.»

«Me, dear?» Dad looked surprised. «Anyway, I don't see anything so complicated about it. Suppose we did promise him that he could do what Dickie does – we'll simply take him along; that's all.» Mr. Perrin cleared his throat. «I'm afraid not. I can outfit your older son with a woman's suit; he's tall for his age. But we just don't make any provision for small children.»

Well, we were all tangled up in a mess in no time at all. The runt can always get Mother to running in circles. Mother has the same effect on Dad. He gets red in the face and starts laying down the law to me. It's sort of a chain reaction, with me on the end and nobody to pass it along to. They came out with a very simple solution – I was to stay behind and take care of Baby Darling brat!

«But, Dad, you said – « I started in.

«Never mind!» he cut in. «I won't have this family disrupted in a public squabble. You heard what your mother said.»

I was desperate. «Look, Dad,» I said, keeping my voice low, «if I go back to Earth without once having put on a spacesuit and set foot on the surface, you'll just have to find another school to send me to. I won't go back to Lawrenceville; I'd be the joke of the whole place.»

«We'll settle that when we get home.»

«But, Dad, you promised me specifically – »

«That'll be enough out of you, young man. The matter is closed.»

Mr. Latham had been standing near by, taking it in but keeping his mouth shut. At this point he cocked an eyebrow at Dad and said very quietly, «Well, R.J. – I thought your word was your bond?»

I wasn't supposed to hear it and nobody else did – a good thing, too, for it doesn't do to let Dad know that you know that he's wrong; it just makes him worse. I changed the subject in a hurry. «Look, Dad, maybe we all can go out. How about that suit over there?» I pointed at a rack that was inside a railing with a locked gate on it. The rack had a couple of dozen suits on it and at the far end, almost out of sight, was a small suit – the boots on it hardly came down to the waist of the suit next to it.

«Huh?» Dad brightened up. «Why, just the thing! Mr. Perrin! Oh, Mr. Perrin – here a minute! I thought you didn't have any small suits, but here's one that I think will fit.»

Dad was fiddling at the latch of the railing gate. Mr. Perrin stopped him. «We can't use that suit, sir.»

«Uh? Why not?»

«All the suits inside the railing are private property, not for rent.»

«What? Nonsense – Rutherford is a public enterprise. I want that suit for my child.»

«Well, you can't have it.»

«I'll speak to the Director.»

«I'm afraid you'll have to. That suit was specially built for his daughter.»

And that's just what they did. Mr. Latham got the Director on the line, Dad talked to him, then the Director talked to Mr. Perrin, then he talked to Dad again. The Director didn't mind lending the suit, not to Dad, anyway, but he wouldn't order Mr. Perrin to take a below-age child outside.

Mr. Perrin was feeling stubborn and I don't blame him, but Dad soothed his feathers down and presently we were all climbing into our suits and getting pressure checks and checking our oxygen supply and switching on our walkie-talkies. Mr. Perrin was calling the roll by radio and reminding us that we were all on the same circuit, so we had better let him do most of the talking and not to make casual remarks or none of us would be able to hear. Then we were in the airlock and he was warning us to stick close together and not try to see how fast we could run or how high we could jump. My heart was knocking around in my chest.

The outer door of the lock opened and we filed out on the face of the Moon. It was just as wonderful as I dreamed it would be, I guess, but I was so excited that I hardly knew it at the time. The glare of the sun was the brightest thing I ever saw and the shadows so inky black you could hardly see into them. You couldn't hear anything but voices over your radio and you could reach down and switch off that. The pumice was soft and kicked up around our feet like smoke, settling slowly, falling in slow motion. Nothing else moved. It was the deadest place you can imagine.