"Right here, Kelly. We had a difficult time locating you. Sure, we
forgive you. You were trying to do what was right. We know that."
"There's nothing--nothing--" Kelly said.
"You're wrong. The Crew's here and we're waiting."
He stared at the rock. He put his face against it and pushed his hands
to it. There was a kind of dull glow in it, a faint hint of warmth in
the rock.
"How can this be?" Kelly said.
"This is the life here, Kelly. Perhaps there is life everywhere in the
most impossible seeming places. And where life is, Kelly, we can live
with it and be welcomed by it. Here, this rock is life, and it has taken
us in. It has been here a long time. And it will be here for a much
longer time."
"Rock," Kelly said.
"But hurry and come back."
"But no one will ever know. How long--how long can we wait?"
"Who can answer that, Kelly? But maybe they will find the Crew someday."
Kelly looked up once at the completely unfamiliar distances growing
darker. Sometime, he thought, they'll come from wherever Earth is and
find the Crew of the ship, find a rock here waiting the ages out.
"Hurry, Kelly!"
His head dropped against the rock. His hands slid down it, and a smile
moved over his lips and froze there as the wind whispered over it.
иии THE END
Transcriber's Note:
This etext was produced from _If Worlds of Science Fiction_ July
1954. Extensive research did not uncover any evidence that the U.S.
copyright on this publication was renewed. Minor spelling and
typographical errors have been corrected without note.