CHAPTER 68-NEW QUARTERS

Elizabeth and Jack's numbers EK-0951984 and DL-1041981 were posted on the wall beside the door to their quarters just as they had been on their last two flights. But this time, a third now-familiar number was also posted with theirs. Baby Thornton's number.

Elizabeth's old Louis Vuitton bag, Jack's worn service-issued duffel bag, and a bag decorated with pictures of baby ducks, were all in a line on the floor outside the door waiting for them to move in.

Elizabeth, with the baby held in one arm, used her other to pick up her bag. She gave Jack a hopeful smile. "Here we go."

When the door slid open revealing their small room, Jack allowed Elizabeth to enter first and then he picked up the other two bags.

He casually moved around her when she stopped walking just one foot into the room.

He heaved the bags onto a top bunk and then reached for Elizabeth's and threw it onto another bunk.

"It's not ideal being back to bunks. I forgot how narrow they were. But it's just for four months. We'll have to figure out how Aaron's going to sleep. . . . I guess that's what this panel's for," he noted as he looked at a six-foot long by two-foot wide piece of plastic composite which was leaning against a lower bunk.

The board was about half an inch in thickness and reminded Jack of something that would be used to make a deck's side rails. "I guess it's a bed rail. Luckily someone looking at the manifest noticed his age. One less thing for us to worry about."

Jack crouched down and examined the edges of one of the lower bunks. "Yeah," he remarked as he saw where it could be attached. "Looks easy enough."

Ten seconds later the board was affixed to the length of the bunk. Jack pulled on it to ensure that it was secure, and then stood back and looked at his handiwork.

"It just snapped in and then locked in place," he unnecessarily explained. "Not bad. It's sturdy. We can just reach over and put him in and out. It should be okay for the next four months. I don't think he'll be able to crawl over it. And if he does, we can keep some pillows on the floor in case he falls. It's a short distance so he won't get hurt. He'll probably think it's fun."

Jack reached over the board and pressed his hands onto the mattress. Feeling the softness, he anticipated how his son would like sleeping on it. "It's not as enclosing as a crib. It's much longer so he'll have more room than he's used to. And he'll like having us in the same room as him."

Jack quickly looked at the other bunks and chuckled. "He was only in his own room for two months, and now he's back with us. So much for separate bedrooms."

"Elizabeth?"

"Ah, geez, Elizabeth, what's wrong?" he asked when he turned and saw her standing still just inside the entrance to the small room. She hadn't moved in the last thirty seconds.

He swiftly moved towards her, took Aaron from her arms, and then, with one strong arm, held her tight. "Why the tears?"

"It's – It's –" Her crying choked her off from saying anything more.

"Shh. It's okay. I'm not mad. It's okay that you forgot the birth control. And Acorn will like sharing a room for us. And bunk beds aren't so bad. What's wrong?"

Elizabeth wiped the wetness from her cheeks and tried to breathe steadily. "I'm okay," she said. But then she took one more look at the room and the tears began falling again.

"It's so sterile!" she wailed.

Jack looked flabbergasted. He scanned the room. It was like on their other two flights. Four bunks. Four lockers. A door to the shared bathroom. Of course, it was sterile. They were on a transporter going into deep space. They knew what the quarters would look like.

"I don't understand," he helplessly said in confusion.

"I – I – I had a couch with pillows and a faux fur blanket, and a fireplace," she hiccupped. "And an antique coffee table made of beautiful pine. We had a tub," she continued through her sniffles. "And we didn't have to share it with anyone."

"We had a real home," she managed to get out before collapsing on the lower bunk which didn't have the baby rail.

"But – but – but" he sputtered. "You knew what we were getting into. We've done it before."

Elizabeth wiped away more tears. "I know," she said in an attempt at bravery. "It just hit me. That's all. It's so different from our home. . . . We had a swing on the front porch. We had a leather recliner."

"But we had a home in Coal Valley before that and it didn't have all those things," he said as he wracked his brain for something to make her feel better.

Jack put the baby into his new "crib" and sat down next to Elizabeth. The mattress sinking down under his weight.

"I just got used to our place in Liskow. It was a real home. With rooms. We had painted the baby's room, and the kitchen smelled so good when I made muffins. And I was always telling you to wipe your feet when you came in from working in the yard," she reminded him with a sniffle. "There's no reason for you to wipe your feet here. It's just floor coming into floor." She said the word 'floor' like it was bad word. "All clean and sterile. . . . We HAD a real family home."

"Your mom always said it was small," Jack reminded her in an effort to make her feel better about leaving the adorable home in Liskow thousands of miles behind them.

"It was snug and cozy," she said with a sniffle.

"The roof leaked."

"Not often. And you fixed it."

"Twice," Jack reminded her.

"Twice isn't so bad," she replied, but it sounded more like an attempt at convincing him rather than actual confidence that a twice leaking roof which had almost damaged the hard wood floors hadn't been a headache.

"The neighbor's dog was always leaving a mess in our yard."

"He promised to clean it up when you threatened to arrest him."

"The squirrels were deranged."

"Too much green tannin," Elizabeth explained. "Maybe we could have trained them to behave."

"You can't train squirrels."

"We could have made friends with them."

An incredulous Jack looked at her. "They weren't Chip and Dale."

"Other than the squirrels, the house was perfect," Elizabeth noted sadly, causing Jack to worry that she would start crying again.

"It was drafty."

"I liked the curtains billowing."

"Even when the windows were closed?" Jack asked skeptically.

Elizabeth nodded helplessly. "Fresh air is healthy," she offered.

"The grass needed mowing."

"Only in the summer."

"I had to rake leaves."

"Only in the fall."

"It snowed."

"It was beautiful."

Jack stopped trying to think of complaints.

He and Elizabeth sat quietly on the narrow bunk mattress. A small pile of sheets was on one end ready for them to make up their sleeping spaces.

"I liked the leather recliner," Jack admitted with a tinge of longing. "It was comfortable. Putting my feet up."

Elizabeth nodded in agreement.

"When I would walk home and turn the corner of our block and then see you swinging on the porch waiting for me, I always smiled. . . . The couch was nice too," he said. "We made love on it a couple times. More than a couple."

Despite her unhappiness at her new surroundings, Elizabeth's mouth turned up slightly in a small smile at his words.

"You did always have the house nice and cozy," Jack continued. I liked coming home. I liked working in the yard. Hanging out in the greenhouse and then bringing you dandelions -" he said wistfully.

"And I'd put them in a vase," she finished for him.

"You said they were the prettiest flowers you ever saw."

The couple took a deep sigh. Almost exactly in unison.

The only other sound in the room was the baby who was smacking his hands against his bed rail as if trying to figure out how best to escape.

"Coal Valley's not as sterile anymore," Jack began hopefully. "It's been three years since we first showed up there. A lot's changed. There are more people now, more things, more –" his voice trailed off as he tried to think of what to say.

There was no sugar-coating it. Coal Valley was primitive compared to their home on Earth.

Elizabeth wiped away her last tear, slapped her hands on her thighs in determination, and stood up.

"Okay, that's done. Tears are out of the way," she announced. " Let's move forward."

She moved the short distance towards the opposite bunk and took hold of Aaron who was bent over the rail. "First order of business, we need to get a wider bed rail because your son's about to launch himself over this one. Then we put the sheets on our beds and unpack."

"Elizabeth?" Jack called out her name in a voice that always made her heart melt. She stopped walking and turned to look back at him. When their eyes met, he spoke again. "I love you. Thank you."

"For what?"

"For being my wife."

"You're welcome," she replied. "And you're stuck with me. There are no divorces in outer space."

Jack narrowed his eyes at her. "Are you saying if there were divorces in outer space, you'd divorce me?"

"Don't be silly, then one of us would have to change quarters," she added pleasantly.

She smiled at Jack, who still looked momentarily stunned by her utterance of the "D" word. "I'm just teasing, silly. You know I'm never leaving you. We're in this together."

Jack relaxed now that he no longer worried that his marriage might be in danger.

He stood up, took Aaron from Elizabeth's arms, and scanned the small room looking for a suitable place to put the baby. Finally, he simply placed the boy on the floor. "How about you send a message to the quartermaster and see if we can get a wider rail, and I start making the berths up?"

The message to the quartermasters took only a few seconds to send.

Elizabeth knew that the crew was properly still busy getting passengers settled so she didn't wait for a response. She closed her messenger and began helping Jack tuck a sheet under one of the thin mattresses.

"You know, this trip is going to be a piece of cake compared to our last two voyages," Elizabeth announced as she shoved a pillow into a fresh cotton case.

"I was just thinking the same thing."

Aaron Daniel Thornton ignored his parents. He wasn't hungry or tired, and he had a clean diaper so nothing the adults said interested him. Besides, he was too fascinated by the small laser beams he saw along the edge of the floor and above the doors to even try to comprehend what his favorite people were saying. He rested on his bottom and placed his hands on the floor, contemplating crawling towards the pretty colors of red and green.

Jack unfolded another crisp white sheet and handed an end to Elizabeth. "Look at him," Jack said with a nod over his shoulder at the baby who was sitting still. "He doesn't even know he's in outer space. For all he knows, this is just like being on Earth. Aaron's first trip is going to be down-right boring compared to what we've been through."

"You're right." Elizabeth smiled and returned her attention to the berth. "What trouble can the little one possibly get into here in a sterile boring environment?"