"Huh?"
"To the bunkroom, you know, like we do every night at this time," Harlan said.
Bova shurgged.
"You've been awfully spacey lately," Harlan said.
Bova shrugged again.
A week had passed since the "snowman incident". And Bova was going crazy, trying to figure it out.
"I'm giving you one more week," Davenport said. "If you can't figure it out, I will tell you the answer."
"Can't you tell us now?" Suzee asked.
"No, I may not," Davenport said. "In other news, please take out your compupads..."
She continued talking, but Bova spaced it. He had been doing that a lot lately. What could the poem mean? Harlan was right, when he earlier said "the poem is sappy"... Bova was about ready to give up. I'll never get it anyway. I'm not smarter than the others... I thought that was a proven fact! Bova thought to himself. Besides, my head is starting to hurt.
Later, when class was over, Radu came up to Bova.
"What's wrong?" Radu asked.
"Nothing," Bova said.
"It doesn't looking like nothing," Radu said. "What's going on? You can tell me, you know."
Bova knew he could trust Radu. They weren't exactly close, but Radu wouldn't do anything that could jeopardize friendships on the Christa. "All right," Bova said. "You know that poem Miss Davenport told us last week?"
"About the... snawmen?"
"Snowman," Bova corrected. "I can't figure it out."
"Don't worry," Radu said. "No one else can either. They're not making a big deal about it."
Bova was surprised that that had come out of Radu's mouth!
Day after day drug on, with Bova waiting for the answer. Davenport gave Bova three hints during the week to help him figure it out, because he was the only one trying:
1.> Thelma doesn't work properly.
2.> Radu is from Andromeda.
3.> The trip home was seven years long.
Those don't make any sense, Bova thought. You can't control any of those things, you just have to live with it and let it go.
"Did you get it?" Davenport asked, excitedly.
"No," Suzee said.
"Nope," Harlan said.
"Sorry," Radu said.
"Tried to get it," Rosie said.
"What about you, Mr. Bova?"
"Well..." he hesitated. "Even with your clues, I don't think I got it."
"Would you explain that to me?"
"Well... you see, the clues you gave me, they don't have anything to do with each other. You can't control them, and all I could think about was..."
"Think about what?" Davenport grinned.
"There's no moral!" Bova cried.
"That's right, and how did you come up with that?"
"I just did?" Bova said hopefully.
"There is a certain attempt to anwser problems..."
Once again, Bova didn't listen. He was MAD!