--"

He wouldn't even let me finish protesting.

"Now don't ask any questions, Lewis. You wouldn't want to spoil the
surprise, would you?"

He chuckled. "Your plane's loading now. You'd better be going. Thanks
for the ride, Lewis."

I went across to the plane and got in. I hoped that somehow we
wouldn't have to spend that Martian anniversary being congratulated
and petted and babied. I didn't think Martha could stand it. But there
wasn't any polite way to say no.

* * * * *

It wasn't a long trip to the spaceport. In less than an hour the plane
dropped down to the air strip that flanked the rocket field. But it
was like flying from one civilization to another.

The city was big, almost like an Earth city. There was lots of
traffic, cars and copters and planes. All the bustle of the spaceways
stations.

But although the city looked like Earth, it smelled as dry and
alkaline as all the rest of Mars.

I found the ticket office easily enough and went in. The young clerk
barely glanced up at me. "Yes?" he said.

"I want to inquire about tickets to Earth," I said.

My hands were sweating, and I could feel my heart pounding too fast
against my ribs. But my voice sounded casual, just the way I wanted it
to sound.

"Tickets?" the clerk said. "How many?"

"Two. How much would they cost? Everything included."

"Forty-two eighty," he said. His voice was still bored. "I could give
them to you for the flight after next. Tourist class, of course...."

We didn't have that much. We were at least three hundred short.

"Isn't there any way," I said hesitantly, "that I could get them for
less? I mean, we wouldn't need insurance, would we?"

He looked up at me for the first time, startled. "You don't mean you
want them for yourself, do you?"

"Why yes. For me and my wife."

He shook his head. "I'm sorry," he said flatly. "But that would be
impossible in any case. You're too old."

He turned away from me and bent over his desk work again.

The words hung in the air. Too old ... too old ... I clutched the edge
of the desk and steadied myself and forced down the panic I could feel
rising.

"Do you mean," I said slowly, "that you wouldn't sell us tickets even
if we had the money?"

He glanced up again, obviously annoyed at my persistence. "That's
right. No passengers over seventy carried without special visas.
Medical precaution."

I just stood there. This couldn't be happening. No