2 Family Tyler's Home Fri. Sept. 11, 2009 8:37 a.m.     Tyler made it home just after 8:30 that morning, which was a little later than usual. Amy, who was his wife of seven years, had already left for work. Friday morning normally would have started the weekend for him, as the maintenance staff had weekends off. The opportunity to work with Dr. Wright on such an exciting project caused Tyler to forget any plans he had made for the weekend. Sleep was going to be difficult now, if not impossible. He went into what his wife called his ‘junk room' to gather up the computer equipment he planned to take to work later that night. This room contained several out-of-date computers and components, along with various invented rigs for his homemade computer simulations. Wires and cables were scattered throughout the room. The walls of the room displayed posters he had collected over the years. The posters were all space-related, beginning with the early Gemini and Apollo vehicles, up to the most current photos showing I. S. S. and the renderings of the future space vehicles that would soon be taking humankind to the planet Mars. For most of his life, Tyler spent most of his free time dreaming about going out into space. In particular, he fantasized about standing on the surface of Mars. Mars was an entirely new world with seemingly limitless mysteries to be uncovered. Most of the computer simulation programs, which he had created himself, were virtual space flight simulations. He also had used 3-D photos taken on the surface of Mars to create a virtual reality Martian landscape, where he could simulate landing and standing on the red planet’s surface. He knew that this was perhaps as close as he would ever get to actually going up into space or landing on a new world, but he still held on to hope for the impossible. As he went about unplugging and gathering equipment, the phone rang. It was Amy calling from work.

"My parents wanted to know if we could make it over for dinner tonight," Amy said. "I told them that we would be there. I just wanted to see if you could try to be ready to go around 6:30 this evening?"

Tyler stumbled for a reply; "I have to work tonight."

"But it’s Friday night," Amy responded with frustration showing. "I thought you were supposed to be off."

"Yes, but something happened today," Tyler replied, showing some excitement. "It was something really big. I get to work with Dr. Wright on the Mars transmission data tonight. It is possible that I may be helping him with a major breakthrough in solving the transmission. He's letting me work on his computer to add some hardware that will help translate the signal data."

"You're not going to mess up one of NASA's computers are you?" Amy asked.

"No, I'm not going to mess anything up," Tyler replied. "Dr. Wright asked me to do this."

"Well, as long as you don't get in to any trouble," Amy replied. "At least you are going to get paid overtime for this won't you?"

"I guess so," Tyler replied. "I hadn't really thought about that."

"Wouldn't it be okay for you to go into work after dinner?" Amy asked. "Since it is supposed to be your night off anyway? I really wanted you to be there tonight."

"Okay...fine," Tyler answered.

Tyler felt a familiar sense of disconnection with Amy. Over the years, he had talked endlessly about the space program, and his hopes that one day they would both get the chance to go into space, or maybe even to Mars. At first she thought his hopes and dreams were fascinating, but as time passed, it seemed to have become more of an annoyance to her. She had no real interest in going into space. She saw herself with a man that had great potential, but he was throwing it away on his fantasies of space travel. He was wasting his life working as a janitor at NASA, when he could be much more if he would only choose a more purposeful direction. Knowing her feelings only made Tyler feel disconnected in their relationship. But feeling disconnected was a very familiar thing for Tyler. He spent much of his life in his own secluded dream world, with fantasy space missions and interplanetary explorations. This was something that had started at a very early age for him. Growing up, his father recognized how much he dreamed of going up into space and of his hopes of joining the space program. Yet, he continuously pointed out to Tyler that NASA doesn't let lazy, stupid, people like him into the astronaut program, and that he definitely needed to wake up and realize he didn't have ‘the right stuff' for such aspirations. He had gone so far to suppress his dreams as to tell him that he lacked the aptitude to get into college, but after scoring 174 on an IQ test which only scored up to a maximum of 174, he realized that was probably a lie. He was then told that there was no way the family could afford furthering his education, but he learned that he could apply for grants and federal aid, and found that he could easily acquire adequate funds. Then he was told that he simple could not go to school regardless. He was given the option of joining a military service or living on the street. Nevertheless he enrolled in a two-year program in defiance. Shortly after enrolling, his parents went through a difficult divorce, which ultimately caused he, his mom, brother, and sister to be in such a state as to need food stamps for a while to get by. He had to take a minimum wage job, and all his income went into the household budget. School was put off. Thoughts of furthering his education seemed to gradually fade away, as a long path of difficulties forced him down a road where he seemed to have few real choices. He recalled all the stories of how we live in a land of opportunity, and how that with enough determination, anyone can reach their dream. He still believed this to be true. But he also knew that when you've only seen how to live poor, and if you are trapped within poverty, those promised opportunities could, in reality be very limited.

It was late afternoon when Tyler finally got to sleep. It only felt like a moment had passed when Amy woke him to get ready for dinner. They arrived at Amy's parents about a half an hour before sitting down to dinner. Conversation at the dinner table was the usual. It normally excluded anything Tyler could really participate in. He didn't really mind. Amy's mom made what he thought were extraordinary dinners, and he never regretted being there, even if he did feel somewhat out of place at times. He sat through dinner and only casually listened to the conversation. He was quietly excited about the events taking place at work, but there never seemed an appropriate time to say anything about them. Plans of his next steps with the new program he had created in Dr. Wright’s office consumed most of his thoughts. Shortly after dinner had come to a close, Tyler quietly reminded Amy that he had to go in to work early that night.

"Well," Amy broke in. "Tyler has to go in to work tonight, so we will need to be on our way pretty soon."

"Oh?" Amy's father said as he turned to Tyler. "I thought the janitors had the weekends off out there?"

"Actually, I am going in to work on a computer program with Dr. Wright," Tyler replied with enthusiasm showing through. "We found something that he thinks might be of use in solving that Mars transmission code they have been working on. I will be trying to write a program that may help to decipher at least one aspect of the signal."

"Oh, really?" Amy's father replied. "That is very interesting. So does this mean you've been promoted?"

"Dr. Wright didn't really say anything about that," Tyler answered. "I hadn't actually thought about it, but as far as I know my position hasn't actually changed."

"You know," Amy's father said. "It’s a real shame you don't have some type of degree in that area. You are so good with computers, you could undoubtedly be working at a really good position in that field, and probably get more than double the salary you have now."

"Yes, I suppose that's true," Tyler responded.

The ride back home was quiet. Tyler thought for some time about what Amy's father had said. He knew the NASA system analysts and programmer’s pay scale was more than double his, and he knew he could do very well at such a position, but without the required educational background, he was automatically disqualified from consideration. He wanted to work for NASA at any cost, and holding on to his current position was the only way he could do that. Amy had received several promotions and had more than doubled her salary over the past six years. She had also doubled Tyler's income since his career position had not really changed. His lack of financial ambition had caused a rift in their relationship for most of their seven years of marriage. This rift was furthered by Tyler's investing most of his attention, as well as his expendable income on his hobby, without much thought to financial planning for the future. He was 33 years old, and considering his potential, he had really accomplished very little with his life beyond dreaming. He had begun to feel a lot of guilt for all the tension his dreams had put on Amy and their marriage. He looked back even further into his life, before he met Amy. Before his parents had divorced, his father had attempted to force him out of the house with no money, no job, no car, and no place to go except into military service. It was clear that his father had no concern for what was best for Tyler, but rather, was looking for the easiest way to eliminate an unwanted responsibility. Tyler's defiance played a part in the demise of the family. Even though his family seemed mostly like a group of individuals forced to live together in a confined space, it was still technically a family that had been divided. When he considered the sum of his life, it seemed to add up to a great deal of hardship and loss, much of which may have been caused by his unwillingness to let go of his dreams. But tonight he would be working with Dr. Wright. He knew he was working on something that could possibly have a global impact. He knew from talking to Dr. Wright, that a breakthrough in the Mars transmission could secure the manned Mars mission launch. This was a chance to finally apply the talents and skills he had spent years developing. Although he couldn't help but remember what the man that had given him the disk had said, about people losing their lives for whatever was in the program file he would be working on, he would not let fear keep him from this opportunity. Somehow it seemed a door had opened up for him, and even if going through that door meant risking his life, he knew that he had to go. He refused to spend the rest of his life on the safe road always wondering ‘what if?’

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