ht and reflected it down again, and the
sky was a deep, dark blue with the buildings about us towering into
it, outlined blackly against it. And we couldn't see the stars....

"Lewis," Martha said slowly. "I never thought it would have changed
this much, did you?"

"No." I couldn't tell from her voice whether she liked the changes or
not. Lately I couldn't tell much of anything from her voice. And
nothing was the same as we had remembered it.

Even the Earth farms were mechanized now. Factory production lines for
food, as well as for everything else. It was necessary, of course. We
had heard all the reasons, all the theories, all the latest
statistics.

"I guess I'll go to bed soon," Martha said. "I'm tired."

"It's the higher gravity." We'd both been tired since we got back to
Earth. We had forgotten, over the years, what Earth gravity was like.

She hesitated. She smiled at me, but her eyes were worried.
"Lewis--are you really glad we came back?"

It was the first time she had asked me that. And there was only one
answer I could give her. The one she expected.

"Of course, Martha...."

She sighed again. She got up out of the chair and turned toward the
bedroom door, and then she paused there by the window looking out at
the deep blue sky.

"Are you really glad, Lewis?"

Then I knew. Or, at least, I hoped. "Why, Martha? Aren't you?"

For one long minute she stood beside me, looking up at the Mars we
couldn't see. And then she turned to face me once again, and I could
see the tears.

"Oh, Lewis, I want to go home!"

Full circle. We had both come full circle these last few hectic weeks
on Earth.

"So do I, Martha."

"Do you, Lewis?" And then the tiredness came back to her eyes and she
looked away again. "But of course we can't."

Slowly I crossed over to the desk and opened the top drawer and took
out the folder that Duane had given me, that last day at the
spaceport, just before our ship to Earth had blasted off. Slowly I
unfolded the paper that Duane had told me to keep in case we ever
wanted it.

"Yes, we can, Martha. We can go back."

"What's that, Lewis?" And then she saw what it was. Her face came
alive again, and her eyes were shining. "We're going home?" she
whispered. "We're really going home?"

I looked down at the Earth-Mars half of the round trip ticket that
Duane had given me, and I knew that this time she was right.

This time we'd really be going home.

THE END

*