“I don’t think I can handle that,” Eddie said. His voice softened. “Mama Tonia, how are you?”
Silence.
And then Mama Tonia spoke. “I miss your grandfather. But some things are just as well. He would have hated this planet. Too much water.”
“I miss him, too,” Eddie said.
“But you’re going to honor him, right?” Mama Tonia asked. “Right?”
“We haven’t decided on a name yet, Mama Tonia,” Eddie said.
“Well, if you don’t name it after your grandfather, name it after me,” she said. “I just hope I’ll be around after it happens. You know what they say: every time a baby’s born, somebody in the family dies.”
“Mama Tonia!”
“Don’t get mad at me,” she said. Eddie knew she was grinning devilishly. “Blame the old wives that started the tale.”
Eddie circled a hangar next to the ocean. Piles of nea
