"Robert Tine - The Astronaut's Wife" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tine Robert)

AstaireтАЩs, matching him word for word, phrase for phrase.
Jillian put out a soft hand and touched his face, turning him to face her. She looked him in the
eye. тАЬNo,тАЭ she said softly. тАЬThatтАЩs not what I mean... ItтАЩs this partтАЭтАФshe gestured weakly with
her hands as if encompassing the entire roomтАФ тАЬthis part right now. The part right before you
leave. I know youтАЩre still here but I know you are leaving, too. I hate this..
.тАЬ


Spencer leaned over and kissed his wife softly on the forehead. тАЬIтАЩll call you.тАЭ
Jillian half smiled and slapped at him weakly. тАЬDonтАЩt you dare tease me, Spencer Armacost.тАЩтАЭ
It stood between them like an unbridgeable moatтАФthe mission, SpencerтАЩs next foray into
space in the space shuttle Victory, the latest and most technologically advanced spacecraft in
history. On one hand, on a rational level, Jillian could understand the importance of the Victory
missions in the professional and even the spiritual life of her husband. To be a crew member of
the space shuttle was considered the absolute epitome of a military flierтАЩs career.
Spencer Armacost had attained these lofty heights by dint of hard work and innate exceptional
skill; he was the first to acknowledge, however, that his climb to the top had been facilitated by
the deft diplomacy of his beautiful and thoughtful wife. Skill counted for a large part of the
equation that added up to a shuttle pilot, but the right wifeтАФthe kind of wife who could charm a
strategically placed general or thaw the purse strings gripped in the hands of a doubting
senatorтАФтАФdid not hurt.
The object of the game was to get Spencer a
place on the shuttle crew and Jillian Armacost had worked assiduously to see that he got it. But
once the goal had been achieved, she found that the slightest bud of resentment had taken root
somewhere deep inside her..
To the average American television viewer, watching a three-second clip of a shuttle launchтАФ
usually the seventh or eighth item on the evening newsтАФthese expensive excursions into space
had gotten to be rather routine. The layman had little understanding or interest in just what went
on up there, but the missions, which always seemed to have something to do with satellites, were
generally judged to be Good Things For America: it was prestigious and, it was said, those
satellites did everything from improving television reception to giving the United States a series
of all-seeing eyes high above the earth.
But there was another side to these missions that the man or woman in the street never heard
about, probably never even considered. There was a spiritual side to these immense journeys, an
otherworldliness as hallowed as any Christian pilgrimage or Muslim hadj. The men who went
out there, beyond the very confines of the earth, were forever marked by the experience. So few
people had actually undergone the process, the shared pool of firsthand knowledge was so tiny,
that no one who had not actually done it could possibly understand the significance, could ever
appreciate the experience.
And so it was for Jillian and Spencer Armacost.
She dutifully sent her husband off to spaceтАФa place she could never followтАФand when he
returned he was still her husband. But he was always slightly different, as if he knew secrets
nowтАФsecrets he could never share with her or with, any of the uninitiated. It was a tiny, small
brother- and sisterhood, one which excluded the vast majority of the population. A Russian
cosmonaut, grimy and exhausted after six long months on the Russian space station Mir had
more in common with Spencer Armacost than Jillian could ever hope to have.
These complex feelings she rendered down to their most simple parts. тАЬI miss you so much
when youтАЩre gone,тАЭ Jillian said with a sigh. тАЬItтАЩs horrible. I never get a full nightтАЩs sleep.тАЭ
Spencer nodded and mussed her short blond hair. тАЬI miss you, too, Jill. Last time we were up,
Streck said that if I bellyached about тАШyou one more minute, he was going to toss my ass off the