The Lights in the Sky Are Stars by Fredric Brown

Author:Fredric Brown
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

For a while, until I got things licked into shape so I could handle them, I was too busy to worry about my luck. But it was still holding.

I heard from my congressman late in May:

"Hold thumbs, darling. We're going to run the bill through the House Iate this week, Thursday or Friday. That's definite, unless, of course some rocket disaster, interplanetary or local, should happen sooner. We'll post-pone a showdown if that should happen; we don't want another near thing such as happened in the Senate. We want to be sure; we want at least a sixty per cent majority.

"And we've been working hard and we're sure we'II get it and without waiting any longer.

"So that you won't be distracted these Iast few days, spending all your time watching the viddy for news, count on a telephone call from me the minute we know for sure. My call will be made before you'll get even a flash in the viddy, because it's not a big enough deal—to the commentators—for them to put on a flash until the vote is final, but I'll phone you as soon as we know it's in the bag and not wait for the exact count or the Iast few votes.

"The bill won't be voted on before ten in the morning nor after five in the afternoon, Washington time, and that's 7 A.M. and 2 P.m. your time, so be within reach of a telephone between those hours on Thursday and Friday if you want the news as quickly as I can get it to you. If the call is before nine (your time) I'll try your apartment first, after that I'll call you at the port.

"It's going to be good news, darling, believe me. And here's another item of good news. I was at the White House yesterday, with two other senators and talking to the President on another matter, but I managed to get a few minutes alone with him after we'd finished what, to everybody else concerned, was the main order of business. I brought up the Jupiter project and reminded him of his assurance to us that he'd sign the bill if Congress passed it. He remembered and reassured me that he would.

"And he said he'd heard about it when it had passed the Senate and had been surprised at the fact that the appropriation figure was only twenty-six million, that he didn't remember the exact figure that had been mentioned when the bill had first been discussed with him but he had the impression that it had been a lot more than twenty-six million.

"That gave me a perfect opportunity, Max, to start laying my groundwork for your appointment. I told him-something about you and gave you full credit—except that I told him Klockerman had checked your prospectus and figures—for working out the less expensive way of doing the job.

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