Pegasus In Space

She shook her head, since she was chewing.

"She's far too young to know what sort of psychic ability she has," Dorotea said, chuckling.

Oooh, that's a whopper of a lie, Peter told his mentor. He was hovering in the hall, waiting until the interview was over.

Not at all. We don't know what sort of Talent she has.

Yet, was Peter's capper.

She was busy herding the boys to the kitchen door. Thanks for not appearing. It was hard enough for them to come apologize no matter what parental pressure was put on them.

Psychics must assume responsibility for the application of their Talent, either conscious or inadvertent, Peter remarked loftily. Hey, don't let Maree have all the toast.

Dorotea popped four more slices in the appliance. Come and get it!

Did she repair the garden?

Were you eavesdropping? Dorotea demanded sternly.

No. I looked when the boys came in. What happens if they see that there's no damage now?

They went the other way round the house, Dorotea said with a mental chuckle. So as not to view the scene of their crime.

"Good morning," Peter said cheerfully as he ambulated into the kitchen. "Mistress Maree, how doth your garden grow this morning?"

Amariyah blinked and looked up at Peter's bland face.

PETER! Dorotea expressed indignation at such a gaffe.

"Quite well, thank you," Amariyah said, speaking through her mouthful of toast, crumbs emerging in a spatter when she came to the "th."

"Really, Amariyah, how many times do I have to tell you not to speak with your mouth full?" Dorotea asked, pretending dismay.

"He asked. It's not polite to ignore a 'good morning.' "

"Gotcha," said Peter, managing to cock his index finger at Dorotea and winking.

"Polite response or not, do not speak with your mouth full, Amariyah, and use the napkin, please."

The psychics who had responded to Amariyah's shriek followed the example of Rhyssa and Dorotea: they ignored it. Ted built the twelve-foot anchor mesh fence around the back of the basketball standard. Amariyah's garden prospered. If, in the next few years, she grew things that ought not to survive winters in Jerhattan, no one remarked on that. They enjoyed unseasonal blooms, fruits, and vegetables. Even Tirla, who had no interest in gardening whatever, was complimentary.

Over the next two years, Amariyah studied the Basic Tuition courses and received high scores. On her own initiative, she studied elementary botany, biology, and horticulture. She complained to Dorotea that the curriculum was much too basic and asked for a more advanced course. She was also very good about keeping in touch with Sister Kathleen and Sister Epiphania on a regular basis and received short notes in return. To prove that she had grown and was flourishing, she sent them a glossy of herself and Dida Tea in front of her flower garden. But she didn't say that it was her very own garden.

Peter, too, studied hard and by the time he was eighteen, he had completed degree courses in engineering with an emphasis on astronautics, physics, and astronomy. He read everything he could access on spaceship design, lunar habitats and ecology, and the constant flow of Martian reports, and he memorized the classified data that Johnny Greene slipped him from time to time about Mars's first manned station. Learning all he could helped Peter Reidinger pass the time until he was officially allowed to work for the Parapsychic Centers.

When Tirla married Sascha on her sixteenth birthday, her wedding bouquet contained stephanotis floribunda, blossoming vigorously out of season. Amariyah, as an ecstatic bridesmaid for her dearest friend, wore a circlet made of the flower that was reputed to encourage happy marriages. Sascha was equipped with a sprig on his formal jacket and so was his best man, his twin brother, Boris. Rhyssa also carried a generous matron of honor's spray of stephanotis. Dorotea and Shria, acting as "mothers of the bride," wore corsages of traditional Greek wedding flowers. They sat proudly in the front row of the imposing lounge of the Henner mansion as Lessud escorted his foster daughter to Teresa Aiello who, in her capacity as mayor of Jerhattan, performed the marriage ceremony. The bride had said she would "honor" her spouse but emphatically refused to have the word "obey" in the vows she took.

Mama Bobchik was the only representative of Linear G and that was solely because she had been present at Tirla's illegal birth. And remembered the date. She was so awed by the company that she was rendered almost speechless, although the occasion did not inhibit her appetite. Nor did anyone "notice" how much of the food disappeared from the buffet tables that Mama Bobchik continually browsed. Peter, serving as an usher at the intimate wedding, kept a check on her acquisitiveness in case small items of value in the reception rooms went astray. In this, Mama Bobchik was somewhat maligned, for she limited herself to foodstuffs.