This was a rough start of a story, that I started writing a while back.  Since I wrote this, I have figured out how badly this story starts.  Probably a good thing I didn’t finish, don’t you think?

Ed was nervous. Today was an important day, but you wouldn’t know it to look at him. He was dressed the same as any other day. Blue jeans and a nerd shirt. Nerd shirt… That is what Jessie called it. A t-shirt from his collection of conference t-shirts. Ed used to attend conferences to talk about technology. But not lately.

This job didn’t lend itself to conference discussions. The stuff that he works on now is too sensitive to share with his (now ex) wife. He definitely couldn’t share it at a conference.

He and Jessie had a nice life before the baby was born. They called it postpartum depression. Ed called it a nightmare. Jessie had almost killed Grace. Of course, it was an accident, but one that had resulted in her checking herself into a mental facility. And that, not before it had ended their marriage.

Ed didn’t have any hard feelings. He was really happy that things turned around for Jessie. He had loved her enough to marry her after all. Things had just… changed.

Grace was the best thing to come out of their marriage. She was smart and funny could always see the good in people. From an early age you could tell she was social. Everywhere she went, people were always impressed by how personable she would be with them. She was always respectful and polite, and showed a genuine interest in each person. She kept Ed from being completely isolated.

It was good that he could bring her to work. He almost always worked late, but that was ok because Grace ‘home schooled’. Just at his office. Martha was always good about keeping her entertained when Ed was in a meeting. The rest of the time she mostly hung out in his office. She had her own desk area and was mostly self-sufficient. Always researching something. Sometimes observing some online event.

It was impossible to attend anything in real time. The time to get the feed from Earth was more than 20 minutes on a good day. Depending on which satellites the signal was bounced off, it could take longer.