Then Friday afternoon, I picked Lori up from school, and started the plan.“Have much homework tonight?” I asked.“Nope.” was the short reply.�...Good, I thought we could do movie and pizza night.” “Yea, sounds great, can we watch….” she went on about some movie only a 9 year old could want to watch, I just nodded and said it was fine. One large pizza delivered, one bad movie picked up at red box, everything else ready. Lori took the pizza in to the family room.“I'll be in with drinks in a minute.”. "Those fucking cowards left me to rot. Simpering, spineless toadies: that's what they are. They disgust me. I thought they were my friends and my colleagues." Let it go," his father repeated in a soft, strong voice."Why?" Because I don't want you to end up like your mother who's as bitter as bitter can be. You are better than that. I raised you to be better than that."Brendan dropped his head into his hand, mimicking his father in the coffee shop without realizing it. "I can't. It's too soon.". "Do you want to find Earth?" Well..." She saw tears start to weld up in Daium's eyes. Squeezing her hand, she leaned in for a quick kiss. "I don't want to go home, no. We should look, though. For Nona, Hannah, others who may want to go back. If nothing else, I want to tell my family I'm alive." I doubt we'll find it, but looking can't hurt," Justin agreed. "That wasn't what you were thinking of, though..." No."Her lovers were silent, waiting. Alicia took a deep breath."I think ... we should. " No, I'm OK," I said. "We've talked about this; we agreed that if something happened to one of us, the other was to keep going."They had towed my car back to the pits, and I walked to it. I put my helmet back on, going through the motions, but feeling nothing. I climbed in, strapped in, hooked up my radio, and told them to start me. I screamed out of the pits, and within ten laps, I was within last year's pole speed. I knew I could find a little more tomorrow morning before qualifying. I.