Klee helped pack the food supplies in metal containers, very obviously humoring her children in this game they were playing.
"Why so much, Lanya? You seem to be going on a long journey." Her eyes twinkled amusedly.
Lanya peered at her mother in blank astonishment. Had she forgotten already?
"We're going to Earth, mother. Don't you remember?"
"Oh, yes," Klee said hastily. "And how was it you were going to get there?" She glanced across the dry, desolate span of desert to the distant bulwarks of the canal. "I wonder if it will rain this year."
"The rocket ship we've been building out in the shop," Lanya said with keen disappointment. Her mother didn't remember a thing!
"That's nice. A rocket ship." Klee paused, as though searching for just the right word to express her approval and enthusiasm. "How cute."
Lanya forced back the tears of disappointment that surged involuntarily to her eyes. She grabbed a large container and shuffled out, feeling, not altogether happily, that now the last possible barrier and objection to the running away had been removed. Her mother hadn't taken the slightest interest.
The ship stood now in the launching rig, a gleaming, purposeful projectile, reflecting the red hue of the Martian desert in the blazing sun.