"That"s not all either, sir," Harry continued. "He can "think" bullets to a target."
"Come in the house," the colonel said weakly. "That"s an order, soldiers."
Three weeks later, Sergeants First Cla.s.s Harold Fisher and Jediah Cromwell were putting the finishing touches to their own private room.
Jed sank down onto the soft mattress on the big bed. "Glory be, Harry, I jest can"t seem to catch my breath, we"ve been movin" so fast "n doin" so much. All them there tests with them tanks and them airyplanes in Californy and that other funny place. Ma thought it was kinda funny I had so much time fer jest a-sittin" "n chattin" with her. Now we"re here "n I ain"t allowed to say nothing to her."
He stole a proud glance at the new chevrons on the sleeve of his fancy, blue dress uniform. "Gosh but Ma would be proud to hear about all what"s happened to us. I purely wish I could tell her."
Harry snapped up from the bureau drawer where he had been placing his clothing.
"Watch it, Jed. You know what the general said. Now don"t you go and queer this deal for us just because you"re getting a little homesick,"
Harry warned. "We"re the only Army GI"s in this outfit and this is pretty plush. You know what the general said, "no talking with Ma until you get permission." Remember?"
Jed sighed. "Oh, I remember, rightly enough. Only I sh.o.r.e wish they"d let me just think "h.e.l.lo" to her. I ain"t never been so far from her afore and its gonna take a heap of powerful mind-talk to get to her."
"Never you mind, now Jed," Harry said, "you"ll get all the chances you want to talk with her. Just be patient."
He turned back to his clothing. The was a knock at the door and then it opened to admit a small, conservatively-dressed civilian. Both sergeants jumped to their feet.
"Good morning, gentlemen," the civilian said. "I"m George Wadsworth, first secretary at the Emba.s.sy here." He looked around the room and smiled. "Your quarters satisfactory, men?" Both soldiers nodded happily.
"Good," Wadsworth said. "Oh, by the way Sergeant Cromwell," he turned to Jed, "we"ve just learned that our hosts plan to launch their manned Moon rocket within the next hour or so. Isn"t that interesting?"
Jed nodded vigorously.
"I though so, too," Wadsworth continued. "I should imagine that your mother would find this quite interesting as well, don"t you think, Sergeant Cromwell?"
""Deed she would, sir," Jed said enthusiastically.
"Quite so," Wadsworth said mildly. "Why don"t you just take the rest of the day off and tell her about it. While you"re at it, you might bring her up to date on your trip. And there"s a wonderful view of the Kremlin from this window. I"m sure she"ll be interested in all this.
Just have a nice long chat. Take all day. Take two days if you like.
No hurry, you know."
He smiled and turned to leave the room. "Don"t forget to tell her about your airplane ride, too," he added and then walked to the door.
"Thank you, sir," Jed called out after him.
Jed grinned happily and lay down on the nice, soft mattress.
"Ma," he thought, concentrating harder than he ever did before, "it"s me agin."
All electrical power went off over the western dominions of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.