"Will it be here after I die?"
"Who cares? Besides, if you can do all this, you can cure any sickness.
Perhaps you can even cure old age and death." She plucked a blossom
from an over-hanging bough and sniffed its fragrance. "You could keep
this from fading and dying. You could probably do the same for us, so
where's the problem?"
"Would you like to go away?" he said, puffing on a newly created
cigarette. "Would you like to find a new planet, untouched by war?
Would you like to start over?"
"Start over? You mean.... Later perhaps. Now I don't even want to go
near the ship. It reminds me of the war."
They floated on a little way.
"Are you sure now that I'm real?" she asked.
"If you want me to be honest, no," he replied. "But I want very much to
believe it."
"Then listen to me," she said, leaning toward him. "I'm real." She
slipped her arms around his neck. "I've always been real. I always will
be real. You want proof? Well, I know I'm real. So do you. What more
can you ask?"
He stared at her for a long moment, felt her warm arms around his neck,
listened to her breathing. He could smell the fragrance of her skin and
hair, the unique essence of an individual.