"I can't seem to remember so much quiet around me. There's always been
the sound of a space ship, or the pumps back in the cities."
He did not answer but continued to watch her footsteps and to feel the
dust squishing up between his toes. Then suddenly:
"Mary!"
She stopped, whirling around.
He was staring down at her feet.
She followed his gaze.
"It's grass!" He bent down. "Three blades."
She knelt beside him. They touched the green blades.
"They're new," he said.
They stared, like religious devotees concentrating upon some sacred
object.
He rose, pulling her up with him. They hurried to the top of the hill
and stood very still, looking down into a valley. There were tiny
patches of green and little trees sprouting, and here and there, a
pale flower. The green was in a cluster, in the center of the valley
and there was a tiny glint of sunlight in its center.
"Oh!"
Her hand found his.
[Illustration]
They ran down the gentle slope, feeling the patches of green touch
their feet, smelling a new freshness in the air. And coming to the
little spring, they stood beside it and watched the crystal water that
trickled along the valley floor and lost itself around a bend. They
saw a furry, little animal scurry away and heard the twitter of a bird
and saw it resting on a slim, bending branch. They heard the buzz of a
bee, saw it light on a pale flower at their feet and work at the
sweetness inside.
Mary knelt down and drank from the spring.
"It's so cool. It must come from deep down."
"It does," he said. There were tears in his eyes and a tightness in
his throat. "From deep down."
"We can _live_ here, Michael!"
Slowly he looked all around until his sight stopped at the bottom of a
hill. "We'll build our house just beyond those rocks. We'll dig and
plant and you'll have the child."
"Yes!" she said. "Oh yes!"
"And the ones back in the city will know the Earth again. Sometime
we'll lead them back here and show them the Earth is coming alive." He
paused. "By following what we had to do for ourselves, we've found a
way to save them."
They remained kneeling in the silence beside the pool for a long time.
They felt the sun on their backs and looked into the clean depth of
the water deeply aware of the new life breathing all around them and
of themselves absorbing it, and at the same time giving back to it the
life that was their own.
There was only this quiet and breathing and warmth until Michael stood
and picked up a rock and walked toward the base of the hill where he
had decided to build the house.
... THE END
* * * * *