Chapter 2
First I went sky-high with excitement . . . then as far down with
depression. I didn't win contests-why, if I bought a box of Cracker Jack,
I'd get one they forgot to put a prize in. I had been cured of matching
pennies. If I ever-
"Stop it," said Dad.
I shut up.
"There is no such thing as luck; there is only adequate or inadequate
preparation to cope with a statistical universe. Do you intend to enter
this?"
"Do I!"
"I assume that to be affirmative. Very well, make a systematic effort."
I did and Dad was helpful-he didn't just offer me more meat loaf. But
he saw to it I didn't go to pieces; I finished school and sent off
applications for college and kept my job-I was working after school that
semester at Charton's Pharmacy-soda jerk, but also learning about
pharmacy. Mr. Charton was too conscientious to let me touch anything but
packaged items, but I learned-materia medica and nomenclature and what
various antibiotics were for and why you had to be careful. That led into
organic chemistry and biochemistry and he lent me Walker, Boyd and Asimov-
biochemistry makes atomic physics look simple, but presently it begins to
make sense.
Mr. Charton was an old widower and pharmacology was his life. He hinted
that someone would have to carry on the pharmacy someday- some young
fellow with a degree in pharmacy and devotion to the profession. He said
that he might be able to help such a person get through school. If he had
suggested that I could someday run the dispensary at Lunar Base, I might
have taken the bait. I explained that I was dead set on spacing, and
engineering looked like my one chance.
He didn't laugh. He said I was probably right-but that I shouldn't
forget that wherever Man went, to the Moon, on Mars, or the farthest
stars, pharmacists and dispensaries would go along. Then he dug out books
for me on space medicine-Strughold and Haber and Stapp and others. "I once
had ideas along that line. Kip," he said quietly, "but now it's too late."
Even though Mr. Charton was not really interested in anything but
drugs, we sold everything that drugstores sell, from bicycle tires to home
permanent kits.
Including soap, of course.
