Page 49 of The Launch

“Almost done, sweetheart. How are your sisters?”

Jo has made two different dresses for her girls: Nancy wants to go trick-or-treating dressed as Cleopatra (which earned a lifted eyebrow from Bill, who still has misgivings about Frankie having taken the kids to see the movie), and Kate wants to be a fairy princess. Jimmy, however, has proven somewhat easier, as he just wants to go as a cowboy, which allowed Jo to leave the sewing of his Western shirt for last.

“They’re fine. Kate wants to wear lipstick.” Jimmy is still looking down at his mom as she kneels on the floor of the front room, sewing on the individual snap buttons down the front of his shirt.

“Well that’s not going to happen. I’m almost done here, Jimmy. Go and put your jeans on and get your cowboy hat, okay?” As Jo goes back to sewing buttons, their doorbell chimes for the first time that evening. “Bill?” she calls out. “Can you answer that? The bowl of candy for the kids is right there by the door.”

Jo finishes the shirt as Jimmy waits impatiently, and a steady stream of police officers, princesses, hobos, ghosts, andfiremen all take turns knocking on the door and opening their pillowcases to be filled with candy at each house along the street.

“Here we are, my little pumpkins,” Jo says once she has all three kids lined up and waiting for her to snap a photo of them standing by the front door.

“Mommmm,” Jimmy says, barely containing his displeasure at being referred to as alittle pumpkin. “Can we go now?”

Jo takes one shot of the three kids standing in a line, then lowers her Instamatic and shoos them away. “Okay. Go and get the candy, goblins. Have fun,” she calls, standing in the open front door with her camera still in hand. Jimmy hits the end of the driveway and starts to run. “Don’t forget about your sisters, James!” Jo says, cupping her mouth with one hand.

“Trick or treat!” A little girl dressed like a cat is standing in front of Jo, and she pulls her attention back to her own front porch.

“Well, Happy Halloween to you,” Jo says, stepping inside and trading her camera for the bowl of treats. She tosses one piece of candy into the pillowcase of each child who walks up her driveway. As she does, the sun sinks lower in the sky, and a crescent moon ascends, looking down on the neighborhood with its bright porch lights, its plethora of witches and pirates hauling sugary treats, and its carved, candle-lit pumpkins sitting on nearly every front porch.

“Hiya, Jo,” Barbie says, holding baby Huck to her chest as she waits for Heath and Henry, who are both dressed like tiny ghosts in white sheets with cutout eye holes. “How are things going here?”

Jo tosses candy in each boy’s bag and reaches over to squeeze Huck’s bare foot. The baby is now five months old and getting chunkier every day. He turns his head and gives Jo a gummy smile. “Things are good,” Jo says. “I got my three out the door, and Bill is inside with a glass of whiskey.” She inhales deeply,hugging the bowl of candy to her stomach. “Ah, I love fall so much. Halloween is the start of the best time of the year.”

Barbie nods as Heath and Henry dance around in the driveway, spinning in their bedsheets and nearly spilling candy everywhere. “Oh, I know. Don’t you just love the cooler weather? I get so excited for shorter days, and the start of the holiday season.” Barbie reaches out and grabs Jo’s hand. “Maybe this year we can start a new tradition of doing Thanksgiving with everyone.” Her face quickly falls. “Except I bet some of us will have family come to town, and others might leave Stardust Beach for the holiday.” Barbie’s smile comes back slowly as she thinks. “Or maybe we can do a big Christmas party in the middle of December—or maybe a New Year’s Eve party!”

Jo can’t help but smile at her friend’s enthusiasm. “Sure, Barb. I bet we can make that happen.”

“Okay,” Barbie says, eyeing her boys, who have taken their sheets off, tossed them onto the driveway, and are now wrestling in Jo’s front yard. “I better get these guys moving. Come on, boys,” she says to them, pointing at the sheets. “Turn yourselves back into ghosts so we can go scare up a little more candy.”

Jo waves them off as she laughs at the sight of petite Barbie holding an already hefty Huck while racing after the older boys.

“Jojo?” Bill calls through the open front door. She’s standing in the puddle of light on the porch and she turns to see him there on the couch. He’s got one leg crossed over the other as he reads the paper, whiskey in hand. Bill folds the newspaper and sets it aside as he locks eyes on his wife. “You got any Tootsie Rolls in that candy dish?”

Jo walks inside and closes the door. She shakes her head. “You want Tootsie Rolls with your whiskey?” she asks, amused.

Bill reaches for her hip as she comes closer. She digs through her bowl of candy for the telltale brown wrapper. Bill grabs her by the waist and pulls her down next to him as she yelps.

“I definitely want something sweet with my whiskey,” he says playfully, nuzzling his face into Jo’s neck.

She’s caught off guard by this unexpected display of affection, but she definitely likes it. “Bill,” Jo says knowingly, letting him kiss her under her jawline as she closes her eyes in pleasure.

Just then, the doorbell chimes. Jo groans. She pushes herself up from the couch, taking the bowl with her.

“Saved by the bell, Mrs. Booker,” Bill says as he reaches out and swats her behind. “You better go and give those little monsters what they want. I’ll get what I want later.”

TWENTY-ONE

bill

There isbig talk of Gemini 3 around Port Canaveral for all of November, and Bill is up to his eyebrows in trainings, tests, and design meetings that will allow the first two-man spacecraft to test long-duration missions. Gemini’s purpose is to perfect re-entry and landing methods, as well as to rendezvous and dock with another space vehicle. There is also excited chatter about “spacewalking,” and the engineers spend nearly every waking moment hypothesizing and strategizing plans and tests that will help them to further understand how longer space flights will affect humans.

In particular, Jeanie Florence is fascinated by the ways that this kind of space travel might alter the men of Gemini.

“But,” she says to Bill one afternoon as they walk at a fast clip down a long hallway, “what about the way it affects human organs? I have questions about that. I also think that cosmic radiation is a big issue that we’re not worried about enough.”

Bill has a sharpened pencil behind one ear, and a stopwatch on a cord tucked into the breast pocket of his short-sleeved dress shirt. He frowns down at Jeanie as they walk. “Sure,” he says. “As well as the way long-term travel might change our spatial memory. I’ve heard that’s a potential issue.”

Jeanie is carrying a stack of thick technical books, and her heeled shoes click against the floor as she walks. She pushes her glasses up her nose and flings her long, straight hair over one shoulder as if it’s merely in her way. “Bone loss is another issue. But you’re right—spatial memory, visual motor performance, and what about the ramifications of living in cramped quarters? We could end up dealing with something as pedestrian as claustrophobia that leads to deep psychological distress. I think about all of it.”

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