Troubling a Star by Madeleine L'Engle Read Free Book Online

wish I could join them as they circumnavigate the globe, but I and my companions are bound to the earth, held down by our weight on this land of ancient ice.”
    Another day he wrote, “The six of us here are good friends. We each have our different areas of work. Cookie goes off in the early morning to meditate, or whatever it is he does when he is by himself. God is his milieu, as wind is that of the albatross. He comes to earth to do the cooking for us, and he is incredibly inventive with lentils and other dried
beans, and makes heavenly messes out of them.” Adam II described the other four members of the team, and how the strange environment drew them together. “Cookie is enraptured that fire accompanies ice, that there are still active volcanoes in this place of glaciers and bone-chilling cold. Bill is studying the evolutionary process that produced volcanism, and is very matter-of-fact about it. Cookie sees God’s fingerprints, but he is such a marvelous cook that nobody bothers him when he disappears for hours at a time. Disappears is not right, since we must at all times be within sight of each other. But if his body is visible, we cannot follow wherever it is that his spirit goes.”
    For the next few days he wrote about politics and economics and Argentina and Vespugia and Chile not caring about the Antarctic continent as much as they cared about power and having their share of the continent. “El Zarco of Vespugia is the only visionary among them, understanding that we cannot abuse the Antarctic continent without grave danger to the rest of the planet. Guedder, the old Vespugian general, wants power, and sees it under the ice cap. His vision is of oil or even diamonds. His son, the younger Guedder, is even more frightening. I hope El Zarco will be able to continue to control them. If they think Argentina or Chile will get in ahead of them, I’m not sure.”
    This stuff did not interest me, so I put the journal on a small table. Most of it was too beautiful just to gobble up. I wanted to savor it over several afternoons.
    That night at dinner I told the family about Adam II’s
journal, and how fascinating it was, except for the political stuff about Argentina and Vespugia and Chile.
    â€œHey,” Suzy said, “get your head out of the clouds. That’s important. Ask Adam.”
    â€œOkay, I will.” I did not sound gracious.
    Daddy asked, “What about it, Suzy? What’s important?”
    â€œNed was talking about it today.”
    â€”Here we go, I thought.—Ned again.
    Suzy continued, “Our Spanish teacher is from Vespugia and he showed Ned a clipping from The New York Times about Argentina giving missile parts to the U.S. for disposal. They have this ballistic-missile project called the Condor II, and Ned said Vespugia and Chile were upset because Argentina had more missiles than they did. At least I think that’s what it was. Anyhow, Ned said he was telling us this because he was interested, but what we were meant to be studying was elements, and we’d better get back to plutonium and uranium.”
    Rob asked, “Are they named after Pluto and Uranus?” I didn’t realize Rob was old enough to ask that kind of question, but when we were in New York he loved the Planetarium, and he did know the names of all the planets.
    â€œI’m not sure,” Daddy said. “It’s an interesting suggestion. Maybe Suzy could ask her teacher.”
    â€œWhy are politics always bad?” I asked.
    Suzy said, “Because they’re about power.”
    â€œUgh.”
    Mother said, “You can’t ignore politics entirely, Vicky.”
    â€œI suppose not.”

    â€œEven the dreamiest poets have to know something about the world they’re writing about.”
    â€œI know.” I did, but it was something I hoped to put off at least until I got into college.
    Â 
    The next day after school I went up to Aunt