"It must be hours ... days ... weeks. I should be hungry. Yes, I think I
am hungry. I'll need food, lots of food. Young people have good
appetites, don't they, Robert?"
He pointed to the provisions locker, and she got food out and made it
ready. But she could eat but a few mouthfuls. _It's the excitement_, she
told herself. After all, no other woman, ever, had gone back through the
years to be young again....
* * * * *
Long hours she rested in the sling, gaining more strength for the day
when they would land back on Earth and she could step out in all the
springy vitality of a girl of twenty. And then as she watched through
the ingenious ports she saw the stars of the far galaxies beginning to
wheel about through space, and she knew that the ship had reached the
halfway point and was turning to speed back through space to Earth,
uncounted light-years behind them--or before them. And she would still
continue to grow younger and younger....
She gazed at the slightly-blurred figure of the young spaceman on the
far side of the compartment, focussing her eyes with effort. "You are
looking much younger, Robert," she said. "Yes, I think you are becoming
quite boyish, almost childish, in appearance."
He nodded slightly. "You may be right," he said.
"I must have a mirror," she cried. "I must see for myself how much
younger I have become. I'll hardly recognize myself...."
"There is no mirror," he told her.
"No mirror? But how can I see...."
"Non-essentials were not included in the supplies on this ship. Mirrors
are not essential--to men."
The mocking gravity in his voice infuriated her. "Then you shall be my
mirror," she said. "Tell me, Robert, am I not now much younger? Am I not
becoming more and more beautiful? Am I not in truth the most desirable
of women?... But I forget. After all, you are only a boy, by now."
He said, "I'm afraid our scientists will have some new and interesting
data on the effects of time in relation to time. Before long we'll begin
to decelerate. It won't be easy or pleasant. I'll try to make you as
comfortable as possible."