From San Diego she went to Los Angeles, where she was booked to appear on a few morning television shows, talking about Fall and Winter skincare trends, and plug Bella Pelle’s latest releases. Her last stop was San Francisco, and after her meetings she went to Jack’s parents’ home in Palo Alto. They had a lovely meal out, and after getting into the twin bed in Jack’s childhood room, she felt like a teenager, texting him under the covers with the lights out - hoping his parents didn’t catch her. She loved seeing all the pictures of Jack on their walls - growing up, in various airplanes, of course a few of him next to his jet from his Navy days. They had a lot of pictures of Jason as well, so it was nice to see both boys got ‘equal time.’
Hey Flyboy. Guess where I am?
Hmm, in my bed? Without me?
It’s kind of small, I don’t think we’d both fit.
Oh, I’m sure I could get creative.
Ha ha - behave!
Did you have fun?
Yes, I did - your parents are wonderful. And guess what? We watched Jeopardy and I ran a whole category - I think your mom was impressed!
What was it about shoes?
Jack Calloway! I’ll have you know it was on Italy. So there.She ended with a face sticking a tongue out emoji.
I miss you. Home soon?
I miss you too. And yes, home soon. I can’t wait.
Halloween was spent at Jack’s passing out candy to all the trick or treaters. Jack had decorated the outside of his house with a space theme, of course, featuring aliens of every variety — including, somewhat disturbingly, one bursting out of an astronaut's chest.Bella did not approve of that particular decoration!
Bella stayed the week after Halloween, as Jack’s birthday was on November 7th, so it made sense to stay and work from his place. They celebrated at his favorite Chinese restaurant with the girls. Bella gave him framed photos, one of them together, and then one of them with Piper and Sloane taken at the Astros game they attended. They followed it with ice cream and cake at home, the cake in the shape of a scorpion - Bella's nod to his Scorpio star sign. They started to clear up after the girls had gone off to bed.
“Did you know Scorpios are supposed to be the most passionate star sign, Ms. Genovese?”
“Really Captain, I would have had no idea if you hadn’t mentioned it,” she replied, leaning over to run her finger through the icing on the leftover cake, then licking it off her finger, while he watched, her eyes wide in mock innocence.
"Captain, can I ask you a question?" she said, still licking her finger.
Groaning internally — damn, she could be a tease— "Yes," he said, his voice slightly hoarse.
“I’m curious, do you have plenty of fuel for tonight’s mission?”
“Baby, I can go extended range tonight.” And with that the cleaning up would have to wait till the morning, as he chased her from the kitchen to the bedroom and closed the door.
The next morning Jack headed in for one of his favorite training days - spacewalk simulation in NASA's massive Neutral Buoyancy Laboratory, in a massive 6.2-million-gallon pool at NASA’s Sonny Carter Training Facility. They would spend about 10 hours in the pool for every one hour they would be in space, and each session was anywhere from six to eight hours. Each crew member would have a support team in the pool with them, along with cameras streaming live to the control room. It was grueling, and left Jack and the others feeling tired, sore, and aching, but he loved it. Before climbing out of the pool he grabbed one of the support crew to take a photo of Margie and him flashing a thumbs up, so he could text it to Bella when he got home.
Her reply came back within seconds:
You two look amazing. Also — are those your trunks or a wetsuit because enquiring minds want to know?
Oh ha ha.
Seriously though, how much does that suit weigh? It looks massive!
It’s about 250 to 300 pounds on land, but buoyant in the pool to simulate weightlessness.
WOW!
I know - it's my favorite training day, other than the Parabolic flights.
??
We go up in jets that fly in steep repeating parabolic arcs - that creates around 20–30 seconds of freefall, which feels like zero gravity. The plane climbs steeply then noses down. We call it the ‘Vomit Comet’.
