Page 3 of The Light Year

In her own words and tone, Barbie hears desperation. There is no alternative outcome for her: Todd will return to Earth safely. He has to. They have three little boys and a whole life ahead of them to live—together. She will not leave Cape Kennedy today without word that her husband is alert and making a safe return. From the first time they met, Todd had been her safe place, her love, her protector. Life without him is not an option.

Barbie loses herself in Jo’s blank stare for a long moment, flashing back on a life that’s already been so rich and full. She sees Todd walking down the hall of her high school, books under his arm, looking apprehensive as he assessed the other students who lined the shiny hallway.

“Who’s that?” Barbie’s best friend, Catherine, had whispered, nudging Barbie with a sharp elbow.

“I heard he’s our new scholarship kid,” Octavia said. Octavia, the first among them to get a car of her own and to lose her virginity in the back of it (to Bryant Parker, no less, who they all knew was Octavia’s third cousin, even if she hotly denied it), curled her lip in outward distaste, though her eyes sparked with curiosity and desire as she took in the handsomeblonde boy. “Probably poor as dirt, but he looks like a great kisser.”

Barbie watched him with interest. He held his head high, a tentative smile on his lips as he searched the numbers over the doors, looking for his next class. Without thinking it through, Barbie peeled away from Catherine and Octavia, walking over to the boy and offering him her own tentative smile. This was a forward move, to be sure, but it was also 1954, and the times were changing. After all, this wasn’t the twenties or thirties, when Barbie’s mother would have been chastised endlessly and called “loose” or “fast” for approaching a strange boy; this was a new era. Eisenhower was in office; schools were being desegregated; Bill Haley and the Comets were on the radio; the US was developing the first atomic submarine.

But for all of that, there was still one line that was difficult to cross: that of class. And, without question, Todd Roman wasn’t one of them. His school uniform looked like those of the other boys, but something about the way he wore his hair, or the unstudied way he tied his necktie, gave away his lack of a pedigree. But Barbie didn’t care. The moment she was standing in front of him, her books clutched to her heaving bosom as her heart raced, she saw his straight, white smile, and knew he was the one.

“Hi,” Barbie said breathlessly. “You look lost.”

“I was, but I think I just got found.” Todd’s smile grew even wider, and from any other guy, this would have seemed like a put on. But when Todd said it, it sounded genuine. And funny. Barbie laughed out loud at his unexpected good humor.

“Where are you headed?” she asked, bending forward to try to read the class schedule he held in his hand. It was upside down, and she reached for it, glancing at the neat cursive of the school secretary. “Ah. Mr. Woods. He teaches American Lit. I’m on my way there myself.”

“Can I tag along?” Todd asked.

Barbie nodded eagerly. “You can,” she said. “I’m Barbara Mackey.”

“Barbara Mackey—my guardian angel.” Todd eyed the rest of the kids as they watched Todd and Barbie with suspicion.

She’d broken free of the pack and done the unthinkable: attached herself to a total stranger, an outsider, a newcomer. And she loved the way it made her feel.

“You can call me Barbie,” she said, her heart going soft as she looked into his trusting eyes.

“And you can call me your biggest fan.” Todd gave her a look that said he knew what he was up against in this new environment. “But everyone else calls me Todd Roman.”

“Todd,” Barbie said, falling into step beside him as they made their way to Mr. Woods’s room. “Todd Roman. I like the sound of that...”

“Roman?” Arvin North’s voice crackles on the speaker again, and Barbie is yanked out of her reverie. She drags her eyes away from Jo’s as the door of the room opens. A man stands there, his name tag swinging on a lanyard around his neck.

“Mrs. Booker. Mrs. Roman,” he says, looking at them with gravity. “Mr. North has asked that I remove the radio from the room for the time being. We’ll update you as soon as we know more.” He makes a move to take the radio, but Jo snaps out of her trance as he does, and she looks up at him with sparks in her eyes.

“No, you will leave it,” Jo says, holding up a hand. The man, clearly not used to taking orders from a woman, stops. He looks at them uncertainly, and then back at the door as if reinforcements might appear there. “We have a right to know what happens to our husbands as it happens.”

The man appears to be on the cusp of making a decision, though it’s unclear which way it will go. He takes another step towards the radio.

Jo stands. “I said leave it,” she insists. “I’ll deal with Arvin North later.”

The man looks at her with disbelief. “Ma’am,” he says half-heartedly.

Jo walks to the door and holds the knob. “We’re fine in here, thank you,” she says. The tear that had snaked down her face was now dried, leaving a light trail of mascara in its wake.

With the man gone, Jo sits again and takes Barbie’s hands, this time more gently. She’s back, and she takes a deep breath, shaking her head and sitting up straighter.

“Barbie,” Jo says, rubbing her lips together before she speaks. “Our men are going to fix this. I know it in my heart.”

Barbie watches her friend’s face, and something about Jo’s certainty brings her a sense of peace. She exhales and lets her shoulders drop slightly as she sits back against the stiff cushions of the couch. “Okay,” Barbie says, nodding. “Okay.”

Dave Huggins repositions himself in the room, reminding them he’s still there. He’s a master at blending into the scenery, and as they’ve sat there together, he’s continued to snap photos, but as unobtrusively as possible.

“Gemini to mission control,” comes Bill’s voice. He sounds a million miles away. “Booker here.”

A cheer goes up from mission control. It’s been nearly a minute of absolute radio silence from space, and everyone on the ground has feared the worst.

“Booker,” Arvin North says with force. “I need you to put all your attention towards roll thruster number eight. Can you do that?”

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