He had to have his wife call in to his work.
“Tell them he was a close family friend”
Although that was a little presumptuous, considering he had never met the man. But, still, he needed the day to make a pilgrimage of sorts, just the few hours to his hometown.
He sat by a field where kids chased a ball back and forth. 40 years ago on this same field it was a group of boys with a bat and baseball.
That was when and where a boy sat apart from the group, and escaped reality on the surface of mars. As a grown man now he thought about what discovery of science fiction did to him. How it had transformed him with the fantastic adventure of the real world out there ready to be explored, how it had been the driving force behind his career and passion.
Out on the grass, one boy lay alone, on his back staring up at the blue sky.
When offered the worn copy of The Martian Chronicles the somewhat startled boy sat up and took the book, looked at the cover, offered a quick “Thanks” and opened it up to the first page.