It costs money to go other places. [And when you aren't raised with a sense of adventure, with a sense that there's anything particularly exciting about the world beyond your town and that it's perhaps even hostile, and that it would be inconvenient anyway...you just end up never going. And then you stop thinking of going. Adventurousness is a habit, not an inborn trait.]

Sounds nice. My momma had a garden in the backyard when I was growing up. Sounds like the same thing but not in space. [He turns his head and exhales smoke away from her. He watches her doodle the flowers into the dust on the steps.]

CDs. I have a bunch of them back home. Records too. But now we just listen to MP3s. [He taps the iPod. He doesn't know what he's going to do when it finally gives out. Even just thinking about it seems to make the cold, icy wound in his back tighten up and constrict his chest.] You have any favorites? I've got a bunch of stuff on here.