CHAPTER 14 - TONY AND ROGER - AFTER TRAINING
Tony flew home to Ohio with his parents and sister Tracy, for two weeks leave. He was looking forward to a little "R&R" - Rest and Relaxation. After almost two years of military, flight and astronaut training that had been preceded by four years of grueling college courses, he felt he deserved it.
His mom pampered him for the first three days at home, bringing him breakfast in bed, the newspaper, magazines, whatever he wanted. His dad gave him full use of the car whenever he wanted it. He'd been so used to flying planes and spacecraft that getting used to a simple car again was almost comical.
Tracy was a senior in high school and a gorgeous dark-headed woman. She was also bright. She was taking a full load of senior classes, including one Honors class, and at night, was enrolled in a regional occupational program to gain secretarial skills. She told her big brother that she wanted a government position, not a position in some company that would go out of business or fire her for wearing her stockings crooked or something "stupid like that". Tracy also had a sense of humor that wouldn't quit, though for the life of Tony, he couldn't figure out where she'd gotten that from. His dad was somewhat stuffy with no sense of humor. His mother was more flighty, a person who believed that fairy tales and wishes could come true if you only wished hard enough. So Tracy's sense of humor was a mystery to him. It crossed his mind once, and only once, that she could hold her own with Roger, even with the six or seven year difference in their ages. He put that thought out immediately - he didn't want his sister, who hopefully was inexperienced in the ways of men, mixed up with someone as experienced as Roger.
While he was at home, though, Tony was handed information that surprised the life out of him. After 25 years in Fowlers Corners, Ohio, the Nelsons would be moving to Bridgeport, Connecticut, that coming summer. Tony's dad had been given a transfer four months earlier, but had managed to postpone it so that Tracy would be able to complete high school and secretarial school where she had lived all of her life. Tony's mother asked him to go through everything in his room before he left, and either pack it up and take it with him, sell it, give it away, or otherwise get rid of it. She didn't want to move it!
Thus constituted the majority of time that Tony spent at home. He boxed up some stuff and took it to the local Goodwill agency for their giveaways. He advertised in the newspaper to sell some of the better "stuff". But the majority were boxed up, and would be later freighted to wherever Tony went - including an old Civil War cannonball, now rusted, that Tony had found when digging around in an empty field when he was a child.
Tony's orders came a week after he got home. He was going to be posted at NASA, Cocoa Beach - which was fine with him. The phone rang at the Nelson household a little later, and it was Roger. He'd gotten the same orders. He wasn't sure about Pete yet, as Pete hadn't called him. They didn't spend lots of time on the phone. He knew Roger's mother didn't have a lot of money for phone bills, and doubted that Roger would remember to reimburse his mother for the call.
So in mid-March, 1963, Tony boarded a plane bound for Orlando, Florida, where he would be picked up by a NASA official and escorted to a temporary barracks arrangement. His "household goods" were shipped by freight to a storage facility to await dispersal, also in Cocoa Beach.
In the meantime, Roger flew home with his mother to New Castle, Pennsylvania. He had paid for her ticket to his graduation. He figured she'd missed his college graduation because neither of them could afford the transportation ticket, so he wasn't going to let her miss The Graduation of his life, Astronaut Corps. His mother had been so proud to see him receive his astronaut wings and the jumpsuit that had the meatball patch, the official NASA logo.
When Roger got back to New Castle, he found he had even a greater surprise. New Castle was so proud of having an astronaut call their place "home" that they held a parade in his honor. His mother told him that he'd have to give a speech after they got back to City Hall at the end of the parade, so he thought of his best flight jokes and one-liners and decided to make a comedy routine about it. If anyone gave him any guff about that, he'd just say that's what Alan Shepard would do. Everyone knew Alan Shepard, one of the most famous astronauts in the corps (and now, his mentor, even though Shep didn't know it). But no one gave Roger any problems with it at all. Many remembered Roger Healey, and some of his grammar school teachers came up to him and told him that they never thought their favorite class clown would become an astronaut. One teacher, who never thought he'd amount to anything because of his dyslexia, told him how proud SHE was of being wrong for a change, and that it was a humbling experience. He filed that knowledge away for future reference.
Days and evenings were filled with one girl after another. Many of his old girlfriends were married now, but he managed to find new ones by referrals from the old ones and by stopping in bars. Occasionally he scored, but more often, he didn't. He wondered if he was losing his touch, or if he was just being fussier. The latter wasn't a bad idea. However, it began to occur to him that his status as ASTRONAUT was now scaring off some hometown girls. Roger remembered Dayna's parting letter, about astronauts being gone a lot, and some other girls' comments about space flight being dangerous and the profession being lumped right up there with policemen for dangerous jobs. Well, if that's how the girl felt, that's how they felt. He wasn't ready to get serious with any girl, not for awhile. He wanted to have at least two to three space missions completed before he even thought about marriage, and even then, he better have the right girl.
After he'd been home a week, he got the orders he'd been waiting for: NASA, Cocoa Beach. A plane ticket was enclosed, leaving out of Pittsburgh. He picked up his mom's phone and dialed Tony's house in Fowlers Corners. When he was done, he remembered to leave a couple of dollars stashed on his mom's dresser, for the long distance call. He'd matured that much.
So, Roger took a bus down to Pittsburgh, where he caught the plane to Orlando. There, he hooked up in the airport again with Tony Nelson. That's when they were introduced to their staff psychiatrist and astronaut supervisor, Dr. Alfred Bellows.
CHAPTER 15 - JEANNIE - THE 20th CENTURY
Fawzia spelled her spirit out of the bottle in the middle of the 20th century. She hadn't
been out of the bottle in 400 years, having been slightly disappointed that nothing was happening anywhere near her little island prison. She had stayed in that ethereal state, mostly sleeping, for a very long time. She began to wonder if her imprisonment was going to be permanent. Djinni don't die easily, but thoughts of giving up on life had started to crowd her mind. Being a positive being, seeing something good in everything, she decided that she would eventually be freed. Allah was just saving her for something - or someone - special.
As she spelled herself out, she was amazed by what she saw. Soaring overhead, something she thought was a bird, was not! It was some sort of flying machine! There were still no ships or boats within miles of her island. She had to spell herself in and out of the bottle several times over the next few months, trying to learn everything she could about the changes in the world.
On one trip, she determined that it was about 1957 A.D. That meant that she was close to 2000 years old, though she was still unsure of her exact birth date and year. Further exploration revealed that there not only aeroplanes, there was some sort of a rocket being developed. There was a big race between something called the United States, and that old country Russia, to get into space first. Fawzia remembered discussions of the moon and the stars as she was growing up. Mostly, the stars and the moon caused problems for her kind, the djinn. So they were not very interested in studying them, or traveling into the heavens. Somewhere in her thoughts was "What is the United States?" On yet another spiritual trip from the bottle, she found out that it was a new country, one that had sprung up and grown in just over 200 years to a sizeable country and that they were quite intelligent people. A trip about a year later revealed that it was on another continent, far away from where she was currently located, and that the United States and Israel, a country near to her own, had been enemies.
Fawzia spelled herself back into the ethereal state, a state in which she did not come out from until early in 1965.
CHAPTER 16 - TONY AND ROGER - COCOA BEACH
Arriving in Orlando, Tony and Roger were greeted by a man who would become their
supervisor, Dr. Alfred Bellows. At first they were quite surprised to have a psychiatrist for a supervisor. After some quiet discussion away from him later, Tony and Roger decided that perhaps the Astronaut Corps was so stressful that they needed someone to keep them on an even keel. Their first impression of Dr. Bellows was "stuffy, proper, and polite." Roger was determined to try to get the man to lighten up a little and get a sense of humor, but Tony told him, he should be careful not to make the man mad. He had the right to put them out of the space program at any time.
Dr Bellows dropped them off at a temporary barracks, another old motel designed to house astronauts temporarily. He told them that they'd have a choice between living in 6 man barracks down at Patrick, until base housing was ready, or civilian apartments right in Cocoa Beach. Knowing that they'd have an immediate raise in salary now that they were in the astronaut corps, both figured on an off-base apartment and a cheap car. Tony had saved most of his pay since joining the service and had a substantial amount in a savings account in Houston. He only had to send for it. Roger had let money slip through his fingers a little faster, but had no way of spending much of anything in Houston - so he'd saved most of his Houston pay. Same bank as Tony had used, same availability.
After checking in, in the morning, with Dr Bellows, they were assigned a Staff Sargent who transported them around Cocoa Beach to get them settled in. They had the week to get settled, and the following Monday, training would begin in earnest. The staff sargent helped them find an apartment, which they decided they'd share for awhile, then took them to a used car place where he knew they'd get good deals. Each man wired Houston for their money, and bought a small used car. Roger figured that in 6 months, when his time-in-service pay came up, he'd get a NEW car, something flashy that would attract women.
On the following Monday, training began in earnest. They hooked up with Pete Conway and two other guys that they'd gone to Houston with, and the fivesome were often seen off base checking out what Cocoa Beach had to offer - even Tony Nelson. He was where he wanted to be now, and could take a little time to see what life - and females - had to offer. His next step was space, but he knew that as long as he stayed in shape and didn't miss any training sessions, he would be as eligible as anyone else for some of the manned missions coming up.
Two weeks after he reported in, Captain Tony Nelson was called to the office of General Wingard Stone. General Stone was Dr. Bellows' immediate superior, so Tony wondered why he was called in. He came to an immediate Attention position.
"Good morning, Tony!", the General said lightly. "How are you today?"
"Just fine, sir. Ready for training, of course," Tony said, putting on his best military voice.
"Oh, At Ease, Tony. I mean, relax. I don't stand on all that military ceremony here. It's NASA, not the Air Force Base," the General commented. Tony immediately dropped out of Attention and into a more comfortable position. "I've got a job for you to do."
"With pleasure, sir. What can I do for you?"
"I should make sure of one thing before I ask this. Are you married?"
"No, sir."
"Engaged, seeing any particular girl? Promised to someone back home?"
"No, sir, free of all female - encumbrances," Tony said, slightly puzzled.
"Good. You'll find one thing out about astronaut service. It isn't ALL training and physical fitness. You'll be sent out on public relations trips, goodwill tours, ribbon cutting ceremonies, and - the most fun of all for some of our single astronauts - dates with girls," General Stone added. As an afterthought, he added, "You - do - go out with girls, right?"
"Of course, sir. Don't most men?"
"These days, you never know, and you hate to ask. But from things said by your training mates, I gather that you don't date as often as they do. You were a loner in Houston."
"Somewhat, sir. I preferred to spend my time in flight school, Top Gun and astronaut training, learning as much as I could and studying. There wasn't much time left for girls."
"That, I understand. I haven't had all that training, but I understand that it's pretty grueling. So, I have a little request of you."
"Sir?" Tony questioned.
"One of the United States Senators from Florida is coming through here with his wife and daughter. The daughter is 19, and needs an escort at the dinner that we are hosting in their honor. Would you do the honors of escorting the young lady?" the General requested.
"But sir ... she's just a little older than my sister!" Tony tried to protest lightly. He wasn't thrilled about being set up with a teenaged girl. He was already 23.
"I'm not asking you to marry her, Captain Nelson. Only to be her escort at the evening dinner. It's tomorrow night. Your military uniform," he gestured towards the blue dress uniform that Tony was wearing, "would be fine. Meet us here at the office at 5:00 pm tomorrow. Oh, and Tony. Another suggestion. If you don't already have one, you might want to run into town to Hagan's and pick up a tuxedo. They sell used ones for a song, and if you do these dinners a lot, you'll want to have a tux on hand. White jacket, black pants." The General turned and sat at his own desk, so Tony knew he was dismissed.
Cornered! That's how he felt. He tried to picture himself dating some of his sister's friends, and he couldn't. Maybe, he though, trying to think of the bright side in everything, maybe this girl would be more mature than the average 19 year old. Maybe she'd be downright pleasant and he would enjoy the date.
He found out later that Roger had a date for the same dinner, being set up in the same manner by General Stone. Tony had to laugh at that - Roger, who could usually get his own dates, had to go out on a command date too.
The General's comments were correct. He had a good time, and this was the start of a lot of command performances. Tony not only went out with the Senator's daughter, but a visiting General's daughter, the niece of one of the colonels at NASA, and the daughter of a general down at Patrick Air Force Base. Plus he donned his "new" tux on several other occasions, where the entire Cocoa-Beach based Astronaut Corps had to show up. One such occasion had them all up until 2 in the morning, and then they were expected to be in simulators at 5:00 a.m. bright and shiny like new pennies. To say that the whole corps dragged themselves in looking like wet beach blankets, was putting it mildly. Even stuffy and proper Dr Bellows had to stifle a laugh.
Tony had another bout with his recurring dream right after that simulator training. He was under stress again, and this time the dream came in strong and the girl, quite clear. He knew exactly what she was wearing this time, but there was no way that he was going to tell Roger. He would refer him to Dr Bellows and they'd wash him right out of the space program. The rest was still harmless, or at least he thought so. The girl was imprisoned in some sort of close quarters, pounding on the sides, yelling, "Let me OUT of here!" several times. This time, in response, he yelled, "Darling, I'm closer than ever, just wait! I'll get you!" Roger woke him up.
"That dream again, Tony?"
"Yeah, Rog'. It's becoming clearer, though. And I feel so - so darned sorry for her. She's cramped up in some sort of close quarters, she pounds on the sides and wants out. And I feel so darned helpless that I can't let her out!" Tony clearly felt bad.
"Still no idea of what she's wearing, so you can get some idea of who she might be?"
"No," Tony lied. "Still the same old pink billowy thing."
"Well, we've been under a lot of stress again. Every time you have this dream, it's because you're under a lot of stress. Why not get up and go for a jog?"
Tony looked at the clock. "At one in the morning, Rog'? NASA will think I'm off my rocker!"
"Maybe you are ... that rocker is called stress. We're all under competition for those solo flights next year," Roger reminded him. "You're not the only one that wants it, and we all know that any of us can get one. I want it, too. And we both know that if the other one gets it, we're gonna be jealous, right?"
Tony laid back down and before going back to sleep, wondered just who this pink lady was, and why she kept trying to come into his dreams at night. She was still, to him, the vision of the perfect woman for him. He wondered if he would ever meet her, and if he did, what he'd say.
CHAPTER 17 - DR BELLOWS - COCOA BEACH
This new batch of astronauts coming into Cocoa Beach were an interesting lot. Every
single one of them was from one of the services. The only service not represented, other than the Coast Guard, were the Marines. That didn't surprise Alfred Bellows. Looking over their service records, every single one of them had a college degree graduating either Cum Laude, Summa Cum Laude or Magna Cum Laude. Dr Bellows respected that, as he graduated Summa Cum Laude himself, meaning wonderful grades. Then looking at their Officer Candidate School and flight school records, every one of them were top students. Only two in this batch had not been to Top Gun flight school.
Their medical and psychological records were equally interesting. Picking up Tony Nelson's, he noticed one entry that intrigued him. Captain Nelson had been having recurring dreams about a woman trapped and unable to get out. The psychiatrist at Houston had chalked it up as symbolic of Captain Nelson's stress. Colonel Alfred Bellows made a pencil note to keep an eye on that, and make sure that Captain Nelson was not having these dreams again. He felt it could be more significant than that.
Another notable thing about this batch of astronauts was that none of them were married. He had long since felt that the married astronaut was the more secure and stable astronaut. In talking to the men, individually, he ascertained that at least one of them was a ladies' man and would probably be the one most likely to remain a bachelor for the rest of his astronaut days. That astronaut was none other than Captain Roger Healey. The rest seemed to date fairly often, with the least being Captain Tony Nelson. Knowing Captain Nelson's recurring dream, he felt that was strange. Dr Bellows went to his superiors and suggested that they have a mixer dance. It would be a command obligation for all unmarried NASA people, male and female, and they would invite the community of Patrick Air Force Base as well. General Stone thought that was a marvelous idea. He went home and told his daughter that the mixer would be a command performance for her, as well.
CHAPTER 18 - MELISSA STONE - COCOA BEACH
General Wingate Stone had a 21 year old daughter, a beautiful brunette who had just
graduated from the University of Florida at Miami with a degree in History. Melissa hadn't told her father, but she had only gone to college to obtain her "Mrs" degree. The problem was, she expected to find the right husband there, but didn't succeed. Now she wasn't sure what she was going to do. Other than obtaining employment with the U.S. Government or a private company as a historian, which didn't interest her at the moment, she wasn't skilled at anything else. Her father had expressed a willingness to send her to secretarial school, or suggested a number of temporary careers that she could take on while trying to decide what to do with her life. She was still determined to pick up that "Mrs" degree someplace. She just had to find the right man to make the "Mr" part.
So when Melissa received the word that there would be a big mixer at NASA with lots of eligible males looking over what Cocoa Beach had to offer, she immediately went to her closet. Asking her father, was this mixer formal or informal, she got the word that this one would be informal, with a more formal ball just before Christmas. She found the perfect outfit, and went shopping for accessories. She was bound to land a husband at this ball. After all, her father and Dr Bellows had both said that some of the newest astronauts were among the most intelligent and best looking men that had come through the base in a long time. One of them, she didn't know which one yet, was going to be hers.
CHAPTER 19 - TONY AND TRACY - COCOA BEACH AND WASHINGTON DC
In the middle of the summer, right before General Stone's mixer, Tony Nelson called his home in Fowlers Corners to some startling news. His family home, the one he had grown up in, had been sold and his parents would be moving to Bridgeport at the end of July. Even more surprising was Tracy. Her secretarial qualifications had gained her employment in the nation's capital and she was living outside of Georgetown with three other secretaries. The man she was working for was going to be transferred before the end of the year, to the US Embassy in Rome, Italy. Tracy was invited to go, and had accepted. Tony' mom told him that he needed to get up to Washington, DC to see her sometime before November, if he wanted to see her before she left. Tony talked to Dr Bellows, and he would be sent on the next Public Relations mission to Washington, DC., flying an Air Force jet into Andrews. He could take Capt Healey with him.
The mixer was interesting, but not exciting, to Tony. He met all sorts of girls, including General Stone's daughter. The little black book that Roger had given him in Houston had a few names and numbers added to it that evening. He decided that when he got back from Washington, D.C., and when training became a little less brutal (WOULD that ever happen?) , then he would date a little more.
He flew to Washington, D.C., solo, on a mission for General Stone. He was to deliver some papers to the Pentagon. A car would be available at Andrews for his use, and he could take it up to the office building where Tracy worked. Roger would have liked to have gone to Andrews with him, and look for some of his former cohorts, but he was scheduled for a simulator on the same day and couldn't be released. In a way, Tony thought, that was for the best. If Roger had wanted to go into D.C. with him, he would have had to introduce Roger to Tracy, and that just wasn't something he wanted to do. He wasn't ashamed of either of them - just scared that Roger would try to pull something on Tracy. Tony was too protective of her to allow that. As far as he was concerned, Tracy and Roger would never meet - - ever.
He found Tracy's office, but at the moment he got there, she was on an errand. He sat down to wait, still outfitted in his jumpsuit, the one that Roger jokingly called the "pumpkin meatball suit" because it was orange and had the NASA "meatball logo" (as it was called) patch on it, as well as his last name. It was his flight suit, one required when flying any NASA or military aircraft, and he'd taken an F-105 to get here today.
Tracy walked in, wearing a very smart dress and looking very mature for her just-about-19 age. Professionally, she took a seat, looked across at the man in orange sitting there waiting for her, and ... screamed in delight.
"TONY! BIG BROTHER! You got here!" She jumped up from her desk, came back around it and threw her arms around him excitedly. "Why are you here? How is NASA treating you? When are you going up in flight?"
"Whoa, little lady. One question at a time!" He hugged her in return. "General Stone had something priority that I just delivered to the Pentagon, so I came over here to say hello. Mom and Dad tell me you're going to Italy later this year, and I might not have another opportunity to come up and see you."
"Yes...Bernard, that's my boss...he just got a promotion to a position in the US Embassy in Rome, and he likes my skills so much that he wants to take me with him."
"That's ALL it is, isn't it, Tracy? I mean ... you're so young to be leaving the United States."
"Bernard is a gentleman, don't you worry, Tony. I'm still a virgin." When Tracy said that, Tony became a little embarrassed. "Oh, don't be such an old fashioned fuddy duddy. I can tell you that, you're my brother. Now, you haven't answered my question. When are you going up in space? Ever since I can remember, you wanted to fly!"
"On space, I don't know yet, Tracy. We're all in competition for the manned flights that are supposedly starting next year. Dr Bellows just told three of us that it's between us - myself, my best friend and roommate Roger Healey, and Pete Conway. We're the best trained and the best pilots. Dr Bellows is hoping there will be three manned flights so that he won't have to decide between the three of us. Then he'll just draw names as to who goes first."
"But you still fly a lot, don't you?"
"At least forty hours a month. That's how I got here. I've got a jet parked at Andrews," Tony told her proudly. "Can you take lunch? I can be here for another couple of hours, then I've got to go back to Cocoa Beach."
Tracy checked with Bernard, who told her to go to lunch and take as long as she needed, just bring him back a sandwich and a cola to eat at his desk. Bernard handed her a 5-spot and told her to use the change to treat her brother to something. Bernard was impressed that his secretary's brother was an upcoming astronaut. Tony and Tracy found a little café down the plaza where they could eat outside. Though uniforms were common on the plaza, Tony's orange NASA jumpsuit got some attention. Two reporters stopped him for comments on the American space program. Tracy was impressed, though Tony's required comments were, "We're excited about space, we're well trained and ready to go as soon as the program is ready for it." For everything else, "No Comment", or "Please ask NASA Public Relations" was the required answer.
Back at the Office building, Tony had to give his sister a hug and the admonition to "please write". She gave him the same thing, especially to let her know if he "was going to get married or anything like that." He made her promise the same thing. As he looked at Tracy, not knowing when the next time would be when he would see her again, he almost cried. This was his baby sister, and it was almost too much for him to realize that she was moving out of the country. That was a long way to move, for a not-quite-19 year old. She was still a babe in the woods, and naive as could be. It was scary.
CHAPTER 20 - TONY AND MELISSA - COCOA BEACH
A few weeks later, Tony looked at his developing "Little Black Book", picked up the phone, and dialed one of the numbers. The gal that had impressed him the most at the mixer had been the General's daughter, Melissa Stone. He decided to take her to dinner and a movie if she wanted to go. She was delighted and accepted. He thought he could hear Wingate Stone in the background saying, "WHO are you going out with?" The next day, before he left work to get Melissa, General Stone took Tony into his office and told him a little about his daughter. Tony listened politely, shook the General's hand, behaved like a man that any father would like his daughter to go out with, and then went to the Stone house to pick up Melissa. After dinner, they went to see a movie of Melissa's choice (what Roger would probably label a "Chick thing"), then he delivered her back home with only a chaste little kiss at the door. Melissa wasn't happy with that chaste little kiss. She pulled Tony back and gave him more of a kiss to remember. It knocked his socks off.
Two days later, he went out with the daughter of a colonel from Patrick Air Force Base. This gal was 19, closer to Tracy's age, but a little more mature than Tony's sister. He took this one bowling, since Deanna said she liked to bowl. LIKED to bowl? The girl was an expert bowler. It was all Tony could do to keep from making a jerk of himself. He decided not to take her out again. When the girl wasn't bowling, her hands were roaming all over Tony's body, not in places he really wanted a woman's hands when they were in public.
Life in the same apartment with Roger was getting a little difficult, as well. It wasn't just his own neatness against Roger's sloppiness. There were times when Roger came right out and asked Tony to depart the apartment so that he could bring a girl in. Tony hadn't had one occasion to return the insult. Without telling Roger, but consulting a real estate agency, a bank, a mortgage company, and his own savings account, he found a small cottage, a 2 bedroom house in a tract development in Cocoa Beach, that was a rent-to-own. He could move in it right away and decide whether or not he wanted to buy it. The option to purchase was in a year. It gave him extra time to save money with which to put a down payment and also buy a little furniture of his own. He gave Roger fair warning, a month before the house became available, that he was moving out. Roger didn't know whether to be delighted or insulted. He consulted his own finances and decided that perhaps, having ones own apartment was not only affordable, but there would be no further problems with females coming to visit - for either of them.
Right after moving into his own home at 1020 Palm Drive, Cocoa Beach, Tony started to date Melissa often. They were seen everywhere together. He really liked her. She was intelligent, witty, personable, tolerated Roger's jokes, understood the needs of the astronaut service thanks to her father, and was happy going out or just in Tony's house having dinner. The only thing about Melissa that bothered Tony was her aggressiveness. Sometimes it was downright irritating. He would make a decision and then 'because of my father', she would overturn his decision and he would be forced to go along with it. At the time, he passed it off deciding that if you date your own General's daughter, there were some perks and some disadvantages. The biggest disadvantage, of course, was that she could tattle on you and get you removed or, at least, in trouble. The perks were when the father liked you, he was willing to do things for you at work.
The formal ball that General Stone had decided to hold to mix the singles at NASA and Patrick would be held in early December, in time for Christmas. Technically, everyone was supposed to come stag. In reality, almost every astronaut had a date thanks to the informal mixer. Roger was taking a girl from Patrick Air Force Base, the daughter of a Colonel. Pete Conway was taking a NASA secretary from down the hall from his office. Roger was seeing the Colonel's daughter pretty regularly, making Tony wonder if it was serious.
After the formal ball and Christmas, Tony and Melissa double-dated three times with Roger and Darlene. It never went beyond three times. It was very clear that Roger and Melissa did not like each other, and Tony wasn't very fond of Darlene, either.
"Tony, I'm telling you, that Melissa is one pushy broad. One day, she's going to push you so far into a corner that you'll never get out," Roger told him one day at Tony's house.
"Darlene is after only one thing, Roger, so you're not perfect either," Tony told him.
"Yeah? What's Darlene after?"
"The 'M-R-S' degree," Tony replied.
"You think Melissa isn't after that, too?"
"Maybe..."
"Yeah, Tony, she wants you all right. She wants you to be her puppet, to do her bidding. You watch. I'm right. I know women." Roger was indignant, and firmly believed what he was saying.
"Then watch your own, or I'm going to be standing as the best man in your wedding." Tony was just as sure.
As a result, both men went back to playing the field. Tony told Melissa that he needed time to concentrate on being an astronaut, and who knows what Roger told Darlene. But the two men double dated with other women, indicating that perhaps Melissa Stone had succeeded in one thing: waking Tony Nelson up to women.