Barnes. Pdf

disorientation were given, and Spike's records were examined, on every one of which he had firmly written Baptist, and it 
seemed to Betty that the psychiatrist would have been more surprised if Spike hadn't heard God speak to him on the moon's 
surface, and when she asked him `But was Spike hallucinating?' he merely replied, `What do you think?' which didn't seem to 
Betty to advance the conversation, indeed it was almost as if she was the crazy one for doubting her husband. One result of the 
meeting was that Betty went away feeling she had betrayed her husband rather than helped him; and the other was that when, 
three months later, Spike put in for release from the space program there wasn't much serious opposition to his request as long 
as the whole thing was handled low-profile, because what was clear from the psychiatrist's report was that Spike was minus 
some buttons, crazier than a bedbug, a fifty-carat fruitcake, and that he probably believed after close personal inspection that 
the moon was made of green cheese. So there was a move to a desk job in general media promotions, then a Navy transfer 
back to trainers, but within a year of hopping around in the gray ash Spike Tiggler was back in civvies and Betty was 
wondering what happened when you fell off the box car of the gravy train. 
It was Spike's announcement that he had booked the Moondust Diner in Wadesville for the first of his fund-raising get-
togethers that moved Betty to wonder if the most painless thing wouldn't be to close The Joy of Cooking and head for an early 
divorce. Spike had done nothing for nearly a year except go out one day and buy a Bible. Then he'd go missing in the course of 
the evening, and she'd find him on the back porch, the Scripture open on his knees and his eyes turned upward to the stars. Her 
friends were exhaustingly sympathetic: after all it must be tough coming back from up there and having to readjust to the daily 
grind. It was clear to Betty that the fame of Touchdown Tiggler could run for quite a few years without 
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having to put any more gas in the tank, and it was equally clear she could count on support - since fame followed by crack-up 
was not just American, but almost downright patriotic - but even so she felt cheated. All those years of doing what was right by 
Spike's career, of being shunted around the country, never quite having a proper home, waiting, hoping for the big payout ... 
and then, when it comes, when those big round dollars come cascading out of the machine, what does Spike do? Instead of 
holding out his hat and catching them, he hits the back porch and looks at the stars. Meet my husband, he's the one with the 
Bible on his knees and the torn pants and the funny look in his eye. No, he didn't get himself attacked, he just jumped off the 
box car of the gravy train. 
When Betty asked Spike what he'd like her to wear for his first public meeting at the Moondust Diner, there was some 
sarcasm in her voice; and when Spike replied that he'd always been fond of that primrose-yellow outfit she'd bought for when 
he got his medal at Kitty Hawk, she heard once again within her a voice which certainly didn't belong to the Almighty 
whispering the word divorce. But the strange thing was, he seemed to mean it, and twice, once before they departed, and again 
as they turned off the interstate, he commented on how fine she was looking. This was a new development she couldn't help 
noticing in him. Nowadays he always meant what he said, and just said what he meant, nothing more. He seemed to have left 
the fun, the teasing, the dare-devilry up in that crater along with his football (that was a dumb stunt, come to think of it, and 
should have set some bells ringing earlier than it did). Spike had gotten serious; he'd gotten dull. He still said he loved her, 

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J
ULIAN 
B
ARNES
: A History of the World in 10 ½