afraid of. I didn’t really like the idea of going outside the Ship, and the more I thought about it the less I liked it. The Ship goes faster than the speed of light (the old Einstein barrier) by becoming discontinuous (the Kaufmann-Chambers Discontinuity Equations). I know the thought of standing on the outside of the Ship and looking at the inside of nothing excited Jimmy, but it did not excite me. It seems to be my nature to have second thoughts, and they came to me all through the week. Since it was far too late to back out without looking foolish, I didn’t tell any of the others, but I began to regret ever having mentioned the word adventure.
Perhaps the answer is that if you’re going to do something impulsive, you should do it the way Riggy does. Act while the impulse is clear and fresh and don’t allow any time for second thought.
* * *
“Who won that soccer game of yours?” Mr. Mitchell said as he led the way through the maze of unrepaired, half-repaired, and repaired whatnot in Salvage.
“Jimmy’s side did,” I said. “Mine lost. We really appreciate your helping us like this.”
“Oh, it’s nothing at all,” he said. “Here we are. This is the kiln where we bake the finished pieces. Copper—that’s for the base. Then an enamel and a surface painting on that. We can try it a couple of times until it comes out right.”
He pointed at each item and, in fact, seemed more than pleased to help us. I think part of it was the chance to help out eager kiddies, partly he liked me because I was a cute little girl, and part was the sheer joy of operating the bake oven and making the jewelry. The pins were just an excuse for me, though I did find the idea of making them intriguing and the process interesting. I am not a tinkerer, however. Jimmy and Mr. Mitchell both were. They belonged to the let’s-putter-around-and-see-what-happens school and they got on very well together.
We started by picking the copper backing, refining our sketches, and planning the colors we wanted to use. Gradually, I became relegated to the position of observer while Jimmy took over the planning and execution of the jewelry with Mr. Mitchell serving as over-his-shoulder adviser. That was after the first try, particularly mine, turned out badly.
The first time I ever saw Jimmy Dentremont he was tinkering, or if he wasn’t, at least that’s the way I remember it. He was good at it, too, and that combined with enthusiasm, mild mental myopia, and desire to dominate sometimes carried him away. It wasn’t the first time I’d gotten elbowed to the side by him. I didn’t care for it particularly, either. It was one of the things that made me wonder, our necessary association aside, if I really liked Jimmy.
It wasn’t really an important enough thing to get more than slightly irritated about today, since we had larger goals in mind, but I did resent mildly being put in a position where I had to work just to see enough over Jimmy’s other shoulder to know what was going on. But, at least, having been put in the role of an observer, I did make an effort to observe and I saw more than either Jimmy or Mr. Mitchell.
When our second tries were in the oven, I poked Jimmy and said, “Mr. Mitchell, it’s about lunchtime.”
“Hmm?” Jimmy said, turning his attention from the oven to me. It was actually something on the early side for lunch, as Jimmy was perceptive enough to be aware. In his concentration on the job of the moment, our larger purposes had escaped him. I gave him another prod to restore his memory.
I said, “We can go and eat and then come back to see how the pins turned out.”
Jimmy had the good sense to nod.
Mr. Mitchell seemed a little bewildered, mostly I think because he and Jimmy had been in rapport, working together to do the job, and now, all of a sudden, Jimmy was just dropping things and dashing off. But he said, “Oh. All right. Sure.”
When we were in the hall on beyond, Jimmy said, “What I said last week about lies—I was wrong. Boy, did that sound weak: ‘Have to go to lunch.’ ”
“Well, I didn’t notice you thinking up anything better,” I said, quite tartly. I was walking determinedly enough that before Jimmy saw how fast I was going I