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“I want to come with you,” Johnny said. Be straightforward, Sue had told him. No bullshitting. No slowly working your way towards the point.
Just come right out and ask him.
It had sounded good when Sue said it. And Johnny was certainly happy to concede that Sue knew Reed a whole lot better than Johnny knew him.
Except that in the here and now, Reed was giving him a vague if not unfriendly look while saying, “Come with me where?” which, okay, maybe Johnny could have been extra super straightforward and clear but come on.
“Where do you think?” Johnny asked, then remembered that right, big favor to ask. (Well. From Reed’s point of view, anyway. Probably.) “To space. I want to come with you to space.”
Reed’s expression changed to one which Sue swore up and down meant Reed was trying to think of three things at once. It looked more confused to Johnny. In a perfectly nice sort of way. Kind of cute – like a baby owl. “Why?”
Johnny told himself that this? This was progress. This was excellent. This was Johnny going to space for the cheap, cheap price of the answer to a very easy question. “Duh. Because it’s cool. I love space. So can I come? Please?”
“It’s …” Reed frowned. “Johnny. Look. You’re a nice guy.”
“Wow,” Johnny said. “Seriously? I don’t even get to do a test or something? A pop quiz? Anything?”
“It’s a serious, scientific trip,” Reed said. “I don’t think it’s really in your field of expertise. Sorry.”
Under any other circumstances, Johnny would have appreciated that ‘sorry’. Except that it was so incredibly obvious that Reed had only pasted it on as some sort of way to placate Johnny, to cover up the fact that he didn’t think Johnny was smart or serious or whatever enough to take into space with him. “Excuse me? My field of expertise?”
“Linguistics,” Reed said, as if he thought Johnny might have forgotten. “You study languages, Johnny. Not physics. Not … space.”
“Space has languages,” Johnny said, because while this didn’t mean war, it certainly meant making it a point of showing up thirty seconds late for every ‘family dinner’ during the next month or so. Unless Reed and Sue would already be in space by then, in which case Johnny would be eating all alone, feeling very sorry for himself. “We get signals from space all the time. Some of the time,” he corrected himself. “I have the recordings. I’m working on translating them. What, you don’t think that’s serious science?”
“I think you don’t need to be in space to study space languages,” Reed said.
Reed might have a point there, even if no, he didn’t. “What if you encounter an alien?”
“We’re not going to encounter an alien,” Reed said, then added, “Or at least, the probability is nearly non-existent, according to my calculations. Look, Johnny, I think it’s very nice that you are taking an interest in my project and of course I understand that as Sue’s brother, you may be feeling a little … you know.”
“I promise you, I don’t think space is cool just because my sister’s going there.”
“Be that as it may,” Reed said, “I simply don’t think the fact that you think space is ‘cool’ -” and yup, those were some definite air quotes “- is enough of a reason to take you with us on this trip. You’re probably just going to be … bored.”
Johnny squashed a sneaking suspicion that Reed had been about to say something like, oh, ‘in the way’, perhaps. Superfluous. Ballast.
“Have you talked this over at all with Sue?” Reed asked.
“Funny you should ask,” Johnny said. “I did talk this over with Sue, actually.”
Reed checked his watch. From anyone else, it might have been a hint. A rude hint. From Reed, Johnny generously assumed it indicated that Reed wanted to know what time it was. “And?”
“And she told me to come and talk it over with you.” Be yourself, she’d told him. Maybe a little less charming.
Reed’s expression suggested he was unhappy, which made two of them. In Johnny’s case, there seemed a quick and easy solution which consisted of Reed telling him that on second thought, Reed would be thrilled, delighted and/or excited if Johnny were to come to space with him and Sue. In Reed’s case, the solution was quite possibly something like Johnny wandering off and never bothering him again, which definitely wasn’t going to happen so maybe Reed should have the good grace to give in to the inevitable.
Which, in all fairness, was fairly evitable. Johnny might be very serious about languages, but when it came to space and space travel and rockets, he was more on the level of ‘happy nay eager to learn’. So it was fair if Reed had some doubts, really it was – Johnny simply hadn’t expected him to have no doubts at all. If Reed had invited Johnny on the spot, he wouldn’t have minded so much. Johnny never minded being happily surprised.
The combination of Reed having neither doubts nor the least inclination to give Johnny a chance stung a little though. It didn’t feel fair.
“Well,” Reed said. “We talked.”
“Did we?” If Sue were here, she’d be putting her hand on his arm, or maybe just saying his name in that tone only sisters had. “Did we talk, Reed? Because I’m not entirely sure that we did. I mean, I’m no expert on communication or anything – oh, wait, I am, but I don’t really feel an actual conversation took place. Just my scientific opinion, mind.”
“Linguistics and communication are two considerably different fields of study,” Reed said.
“Are they,” Johnny said. And stay nice, all right? You know what he’s like.
I mean, I love him, but sometimes he’s very … Reed.
“I feel we’ve wandered a long way from the original topic of this conversation.” Reed sounded like he wasn’t sure whether to blame himself for that or to blame Johnny, which was nice and refreshing. “And I had made plans for this afternoon. An experiment.”
Being a little less charming clearly wasn’t going to get the job done. “Can I watch? I love experiments.”
Reed blinked as if no one had ever told him that before. Which couldn’t possibly be true. “I … suppose?”
“Great.” Johnny managed not to grin. “Then, lead the way.”
Reed looked like he suspected he was being bamboozled, but had no idea how or to what purpose or even by who. “Really?”
“Sure. I’d love to get a little background on what you’re going to be doing, if that’s all right. If you can spare the time, that is.”
“Certainly,” Reed said. “It’s very interesting, actually. You see - ” and they were off.
To Reed’s (shared) lab for now, but Johnny had high hopes.