‭Before I could suggest to Maurine that we make a break for it, Mary Beth opened the front door. “Come on in you two,” she said stepping back.�...”I hope we aren’t late, but I had to stop and vacuum out the car,” I said. It was true, but I said it just for show, since everyone picked on me for my habit of being early.‭”You are fine. I just have to put the bread in the oven then dinner will be on the table,” she said turning her back on me.‭Maurine smile then followed her into the kitchen. I had. ’ Ruth, coming to the rescue, showed some interest. ‘What’s the social life like there? Same as here?’ ‘Well, perhaps, but…’ Jennifer didn’t want to offend her two companions. They were doing their best to be friendly. ‘I haven’t been here long enough to compare. We have many good little restaurants down there and most of them have musical entertainment. There are bridge parties, tennis competitions and…’ Her voice trailed away. Karen interrupted with a shill shriek of derision. ‘Bridge? Who. It's good."I rolled my eyes. That explained it. Mom doesn't have a career as such. Dad was always the bread winner, and after he ran off with his secretary, Mom struggled to find a job. There weren't many positions where 'experience as a home-maker' was a principal requirement. So she tried her hand at a few things, but never found the perfect job for her. Four years on, she's still looking, and it seemed this was her latest fad."Here we go," I said cynically, "Starting a massage parlour, are. At the time he'd said twenty to twenty-two weeks total. She was aware from experience that two of those weeks could be discounted; they represented perceived time aboard the ship while it was traversing worm space, which in actuality was instantaneous. That left another twenty weeks maximum, of which presumably half the time would be spent accelerating to the velocity necessary for them to make the worm transit and the other half bleeding off that retained speed so they could make rendezvous.