September 24, 2025 • 19 mins
In a distant future, Earth continues its orbit around the Sun, a forgotten speck in the galaxy, irrelevant to its trillions of descendants. Yet, for the few million who remain, life is a tapestry of simplicity and quiet joy. But when interstellar politics demands their departure from Earth, the story unfolds in unexpected ways. Join the legendary Poul Anderson as he delves into the significance of Earth to humanity, focusing on one mans poignant journey. (Summary by Phil Chenevert)
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Part four of the chapter Inns by Paul Anderson. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part four. He
felt very tired, but didn't want to sleep, and willed
himself back to alertness. There hadn't been much chance to
inspect the ruins, and he felt it would be appropriate
(00:21):
to see them by moonlight. Rising into the air, he
ghosted over roofs and trees until he came to the
Dead city. For a while, he hovered in the sky
like dark velvet. A faint breeze murmured around him, and
he heard the remote noise of crickets and the sea,
but stillness enveloped at all, there was no real sound.
(00:45):
Saul City, capital of the legendary First Empire, had been enormous.
It must have sprawled over forty or fifty thousand square
kilometers when it was in its prime, when it was
the gay and wicked heart of human civilization, and swollen
with the life blood of the stars. And yet those
(01:06):
who built it had been men of taste. They had
sought out genius to create it for them. The city
was not a collection of buildings. It was a balanced
hole radiating from the mighty peaks of the central palace,
through colonnades and parks, and leaping skyways out to the
temple like villas of the rulers. For all its monstra size,
(01:30):
it had been a fairy sight, a woven lace of
polished metal and white black red stone, colored plastic, music
and light everywhere, light bombarded from space, sacked again and
again by the barbarian hordes who swarmed maggot like through
the bones of the slain empire, weathered, shaken by the
(01:54):
slow sliding of Earth's crust, pried apart by patient delicate roots,
dug over by hundreds of generations of archaeologists, treasure seekers,
the idly curious, made a quarry of metal and stone
for the ignorant peasants who finally huddled about it. Still,
its empty walls and blind windows, crumbling arches and topple pillars,
(02:19):
held a ghost of beauty and magnificence, which was like
a half remembered dream, a dream the whole race had
once had, and now we're waking up. Darrin moved silently
over the ruins. Trees growing between tumble blocks dappled them
with moonlight and shadow. The marble was very white and
(02:41):
fair against darkness. He hovered by a broken caryatid, marveling
at its exquisite, leaping lightness. That girl had borne tons
of stone like a flower in her hair. Further on
across the street that was a lane of woods. Beyond
a park that was thick with aid forest lay the
(03:01):
nearly complete outline of a house. Only its rain blurred
walls stood, but he could trace the separate rooms. Here
a noble had entertained his friends robes that were fluid rainbows, jewels,
dripping fire, swift, cynical interplay of wits, like sharpened swords
(03:21):
rising above music, and the clear, sweet laughter of dancing girls. Here,
people whose flesh was now dust had slept and made love,
and laying side by side in darkness to watch the
moving pageant of the city. Here the slaves had lived
and worked and sometimes wept. Here the children had played
(03:42):
their ageless games under willows between banks of roses. Oh,
it had been a hard and cruel time. It was
well gone, but it had lived. It had embodied man,
all that was noble and splendid and evil and merely
wistful in the race. And now its late children had forgotten.
(04:07):
A cat sprang up on one of the walls, and
flowed noiselessly along it. Hunting, Jorin shook himself and flew
toward the center of the city, the Imperial Palace. An
owl hooted somewhere, and a bat fluttered out of his way,
like a small, damned soul blackened by hell fire. He
didn't raise a windscreen, but let the air blow around him,
(04:30):
the air of earth. The palace was almost completely wrecked,
a mountain of heaped rocks, bare bones of eternal metal,
gnawed thin by steady ages of wind and rain and frost.
But once it must have been gigantic. Men rarely build
that big. Nowadays they don't need to, and the whole
(04:52):
human spirit had changed, become ever more abstract, finding its
treasures within itself. There had been an elemental magnificence about
early man and the works he raised to challenge the sky.
One tower still stood, a gutted shell, white under the stars,
(05:13):
rising in a filigree of columns and arches which seemed
impossibly airy, as if it were built of moonlight. Jarn
settled on its broken upper balcony, dizzily high above the
black and white fantasy of the ruins. A hawk flew
shrieking from its nest. Then there was silence. No wait,
(05:34):
another yell ringing down the starways, a dark streak across
the moon's face. Hey yah. Jaron recognized the joyful shout
of young Klothy rushing through heaven like a demon on
a broomstick, and scowled in annoyance. He didn't want to
be bothered now, well, they had as much right here
(05:56):
as he. He repressed the emotion and even managed a
small after all, he would have liked to feel gay
and reckless at times, but he had never been able to.
Jarn was a little older than Klothie, a few centuries
at most, but he came of a melancholy folk. He
had been born old. Another form pursued the first. As
(06:20):
they neared, Jarn recognized Teal Javena's supple outline. Those two
had been teamed up for one of the African districts.
But they sensed him and came wildly out of the
sky to perch on the balcony railing and swing their
legs above the heights. Are you? Said Clothie? His lean
face laughed in the moonlight. Oohoo, what a flight. I'm
(06:44):
all right, said Jaron, you threw in your sector. Uh huh,
So we thought we'd just duck over and look in here.
Last chance anyone will ever have to do some sight
seeing on Earth. Talavna's full lips drooped a bit as
she looked over the room ruins. She came from Unith,
one of the few planets where they still kept cities,
(07:06):
and was as much a child of their soaring arrogance
as Jorn of his hills and thunders in great empty seas.
I thought it would be bigger, she said. Well, they
were building this fifty or sixty thousand years ago, said Clothie.
Can't expect too much. There is good art left here,
said Joran, pieces which for one reason or another weren't
(07:29):
carried off. But you have to look around for it.
I've seen a lot of it already in museums, said
tell Yuvna. Not bad montally, cried Cluthie. He touched her
shoulder and sprang into the air. Tag you're it, she
screamed with laughter, and shot off after him. They rushed
across the wilderness, weaving in and out of empty windows
(07:52):
and broken colonnades, and their shouts woke a clamor of echoes,
Joran sighed, I'd better go to bed. He thought, it's late.
The space ship was a steely pillar against the low,
gray sky. Now and then a fine rain would dristle down,
blurrying it from sight. Then that would end, and the
(08:15):
ship's flanks would glisten as if they were polished. Clouds
scudded overhead like flying smoke, and the wind was loud
in the trees. The line of Terrans moving slowly into
the vessel seemed to go on forever. A couple of
the ship's crew flew above them, throwing out a shield
against the rain. They shoveled without much talk or expression,
(08:38):
pushing carts filled with their little possessions. Jarran stood to
one side, watching them go by, one face after another,
scored and darkened by the sun of Earth, the winds
of Earth, hands still grimy with the soil of Earth. Well,
he thought, there they go. They aren't being as emotional
(08:58):
about it as I thought they would. I wonder if
they really do care. Julith went past with her parents.
She saw him and darted from the line and curtsied
before him. Goodbye, good sir, she said. Looking up, she
showed him a small and serious face. Will I ever
see you again? Well, he lied, I might look in
(09:20):
on you sometime. Please do in a few years, maybe
when you can. It takes many generations to raise the
people like this to our standard. In a few years,
to me, she'll be in her grave. I'm sure you'll
be very happy, he said. She gulped. Yes, she said,
so low he could barely hear her. Yes, I know,
(09:44):
I will. She turned and ran back to her mother.
The raindrops glistened in her hair. Zak came up behind Jaron.
I made a last minute sweep of the whole area,
he said, detected no sign of human life. So it's
all taken care of except your old men. Good, said
Jaron tonelessly. I wish you could do something about him,
(10:08):
So do I. Zaak strolled off again. A young man
and woman walking hand in hand turned out of the
line not far away and stood for a little while.
A spaceman zoomed over to them. Better get back, he warned,
you'll get rained on. That's what we wanted, said the
young man. The spaceman shrugged and resumed his hovering. Presently,
(10:31):
the couple re entered the line. The tail of the
procession went by Juran and the ship swallowed it fast.
The rain fell harder, bouncing off his force feel like
silver spears. Lightening winked in the west that he heard
the distant exuberance of thunder. Carmped came walking slowly toward him.
(10:52):
Rain streamed off his clothes and matted his long gray
hair and beard. His wooden shoes made a wet sound
the mud. Jarn extended the force field to cover him.
I hope you've changed your mind, said the fulkission. No
I haven't, said Carmpt. I just stayed away till everybody
(11:12):
was aboard. Don't like goodbyes. You don't know what you're doing,
said Jarn, for the thousandth time. It's plain madness to
stay here alone. I told you I don't like goodbyes,
said Carped harshly. I have to go advise the captain
of the ship, said Jarn. You have maybe half an
(11:33):
hour before she lifts. Nobody will laugh at you for
changing your mind. I won't. Carmped smiled without warmth. You
people are the future. I guess why can't you leave
the past alone? I'm the past. He looked toward the
four hills hidden by the noisy rain. I like it
(11:54):
here galactic. That should be enough for you. Well. Then
Jarn held out his hand in the archaic gesture of Earth, Goodbye, goodbye.
Carmp took the hand with a brief, indifferent clasp. Then
he turned and walked off toward the village. Jarn watched
him till he was out of sight. The technician paused
(12:16):
in the airlocked door, looking over the gray landscape and
the village, from whose chimneys no smoke rose. Farewell, my mother,
he thought, and then, surprising himself, maybe Carmped is doing
the right thing after all, he entered the ship and
the door closed behind him. Toward evening, the clouds lifted
(12:38):
and the sky showed a clear, pale blue, as if
it had been washed clean, and the grass and leaves glistened.
Carmped came out of the house to watch the sunset.
It was a good one, all flame and gold. A
pity little Julith wasn't there to see it. She'd always
liked sunsets. But Julith was so far away now that
(13:01):
if she set a call to him, calling with the
speed of light, it would not come. Before he was dead.
Nothing would come to him, not ever again, He tamped
his pipe with a horny thumb and lit it, and
drew a deep cloud into his lungs. Hands in pockets,
he strolled down the wet streets. The sound of his
(13:22):
clogs was unexpectedly loud. Well Son, he thought, Now you've
got a whole world all to yourself to do with,
just as you like. You're the richest man who ever lived.
There was no problem in keeping alive. Enough food of
all kinds was stored in the town's freeze vault to
(13:44):
support a hundred men for the ten or twenty years
remaining to him. But he'd want to stay busy. He
could maybe keep three forms from going to seed, watch
over fields and orchards, and livestock dust, and wash and
light up in the evening a man ought to hear busy.
He came to the end of the street where it
turned into a gravel road, winding up toward a high hill,
(14:07):
and followed that dusk was creeping over the fields. The
sea was of metal streak very far away, and a
few early stars blaked forth. A wind was springing up,
a soft, murmurous wind that talked in the trees. But
how quiet things were on top of the hill. Stood
(14:28):
the chapel, a small steepled building of ancient stone. He
let himself in the gate and walked around to the
graveyard behind. There were many of the demure white tombstones,
thousands of years of Sola's township, men and women who
had lived and worked and begotten, laughed and wept and died.
(14:49):
Someone had put a wreath on one grave. Only this
morning it brushed against his leg as he went by.
Tomorrow it would be withered, and weeds was st to grow.
He'd have to tend the chapel yard too. Only fitting,
he found his family plot and stood with feet spread apart,
(15:10):
fists on hips, smoking and looking down at the markers.
Girlog Karma's son, Karna Howat's daughter, These hundred years had
they lain in the earth. Hello Dad, Hello mother. His
fingers reached out and stroked the headstone of his wife,
and so many of his children were here too. Sometimes
(15:32):
he found it hard to believe that tall Girlog and
laughing Starm and shy gentle Huan were gone. Had outlived
too many people. I had to stay, he thought, this
is my land, I am of it, and I couldn't go.
Someone had to stay and keep the land, if only
(15:52):
for a little while, I can give it ten more
years before the forest comes and takes itness grew around him.
Woods beyond the hill loomed like a wall. Once he
started violently, he thought he heard a child crying. No,
only a bird. He cursed himself for the senseless pounding
(16:14):
of his heart. Gloomy place here, he thought, better get
back to the house. He groped slowly out of the
yard toward the road. The stars were out now. Carmpt
looked up and thought he had never seen them so bright.
Too right. He didn't like it. Go away, stars, he thought,
you took my people, but I'm staying here. This is
(16:38):
my land. He reached down to touch it, but the
grass was cold and wet under his palm. The gravel
scretched loudly as he walked, and the wind mumbled in
the hedges. But there was no other sound. Not a
voice called, not an engine turned, not a dog barked. No.
He hadn't thought it would be so quiet, quiet and dark,
(17:03):
No lights half to tend the street lamps himself. It
was no fun, not being able to see the town
from here, not being able to see anything except the stars.
Should have remembered to bring a flashlight, but he was
old and absent minded, and there was no one to
remind him. When he died, there would be no one
(17:25):
to hold his hands, no one to close his eyes
and lay him in the earth, and the forests would
grow in over the land, and wild beasts would nuzzle
his bones. But I knew that what of it. I'm
tough enough to take it. Stars flashed and flashed above him.
Looking up against his own will, Harmed saw how bright
(17:47):
they were, how bright and quiet, and how very far
away he was, seeing light that had left his home
before he was born. He stopped, sucking in his breath
between his teeth. No, he whispered, This was his land,
This was earth, the home of man. It was his,
(18:09):
and he was it's. This was the land, and not
a single dustmoat crazily reeling and spinning through an endlessness
of darkened silence, cold in immensity. Earth could not be
so alone. The last man alive, the last man in
all the world. He screamed then, and began to run.
(18:34):
His feet clattered aloud on the road. The small sound
was quickly swallowed by silence, and he covered his face
against the relentless blaze of the stars. But there was
no place to run to, no place at all. End
of Part four, end of the chapter ends by Paul Anderson.
(18:58):
The story read by Phil Shineveret October twenty twelve in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
Part four of the chapter Inns by Paul Anderson. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Part four. He
felt very tired, but didn't want to sleep, and willed
himself back to alertness. There hadn't been much chance to
inspect the ruins, and he felt it would be appropriate
(00:21):
to see them by moonlight. Rising into the air, he
ghosted over roofs and trees until he came to the
Dead city. For a while, he hovered in the sky
like dark velvet. A faint breeze murmured around him, and
he heard the remote noise of crickets and the sea,
but stillness enveloped at all, there was no real sound.
(00:45):
Saul City, capital of the legendary First Empire, had been enormous.
It must have sprawled over forty or fifty thousand square
kilometers when it was in its prime, when it was
the gay and wicked heart of human civilization, and swollen
with the life blood of the stars. And yet those
(01:06):
who built it had been men of taste. They had
sought out genius to create it for them. The city
was not a collection of buildings. It was a balanced
hole radiating from the mighty peaks of the central palace,
through colonnades and parks, and leaping skyways out to the
temple like villas of the rulers. For all its monstra size,
(01:30):
it had been a fairy sight, a woven lace of
polished metal and white black red stone, colored plastic, music
and light everywhere, light bombarded from space, sacked again and
again by the barbarian hordes who swarmed maggot like through
the bones of the slain empire, weathered, shaken by the
(01:54):
slow sliding of Earth's crust, pried apart by patient delicate roots,
dug over by hundreds of generations of archaeologists, treasure seekers,
the idly curious, made a quarry of metal and stone
for the ignorant peasants who finally huddled about it. Still,
its empty walls and blind windows, crumbling arches and topple pillars,
(02:19):
held a ghost of beauty and magnificence, which was like
a half remembered dream, a dream the whole race had
once had, and now we're waking up. Darrin moved silently
over the ruins. Trees growing between tumble blocks dappled them
with moonlight and shadow. The marble was very white and
(02:41):
fair against darkness. He hovered by a broken caryatid, marveling
at its exquisite, leaping lightness. That girl had borne tons
of stone like a flower in her hair. Further on
across the street that was a lane of woods. Beyond
a park that was thick with aid forest lay the
(03:01):
nearly complete outline of a house. Only its rain blurred
walls stood, but he could trace the separate rooms. Here
a noble had entertained his friends robes that were fluid rainbows, jewels,
dripping fire, swift, cynical interplay of wits, like sharpened swords
(03:21):
rising above music, and the clear, sweet laughter of dancing girls. Here,
people whose flesh was now dust had slept and made love,
and laying side by side in darkness to watch the
moving pageant of the city. Here the slaves had lived
and worked and sometimes wept. Here the children had played
(03:42):
their ageless games under willows between banks of roses. Oh,
it had been a hard and cruel time. It was
well gone, but it had lived. It had embodied man,
all that was noble and splendid and evil and merely
wistful in the race. And now its late children had forgotten.
(04:07):
A cat sprang up on one of the walls, and
flowed noiselessly along it. Hunting, Jorin shook himself and flew
toward the center of the city, the Imperial Palace. An
owl hooted somewhere, and a bat fluttered out of his way,
like a small, damned soul blackened by hell fire. He
didn't raise a windscreen, but let the air blow around him,
(04:30):
the air of earth. The palace was almost completely wrecked,
a mountain of heaped rocks, bare bones of eternal metal,
gnawed thin by steady ages of wind and rain and frost.
But once it must have been gigantic. Men rarely build
that big. Nowadays they don't need to, and the whole
(04:52):
human spirit had changed, become ever more abstract, finding its
treasures within itself. There had been an elemental magnificence about
early man and the works he raised to challenge the sky.
One tower still stood, a gutted shell, white under the stars,
(05:13):
rising in a filigree of columns and arches which seemed
impossibly airy, as if it were built of moonlight. Jarn
settled on its broken upper balcony, dizzily high above the
black and white fantasy of the ruins. A hawk flew
shrieking from its nest. Then there was silence. No wait,
(05:34):
another yell ringing down the starways, a dark streak across
the moon's face. Hey yah. Jaron recognized the joyful shout
of young Klothy rushing through heaven like a demon on
a broomstick, and scowled in annoyance. He didn't want to
be bothered now, well, they had as much right here
(05:56):
as he. He repressed the emotion and even managed a
small after all, he would have liked to feel gay
and reckless at times, but he had never been able to.
Jarn was a little older than Klothie, a few centuries
at most, but he came of a melancholy folk. He
had been born old. Another form pursued the first. As
(06:20):
they neared, Jarn recognized Teal Javena's supple outline. Those two
had been teamed up for one of the African districts.
But they sensed him and came wildly out of the
sky to perch on the balcony railing and swing their
legs above the heights. Are you? Said Clothie? His lean
face laughed in the moonlight. Oohoo, what a flight. I'm
(06:44):
all right, said Jaron, you threw in your sector. Uh huh,
So we thought we'd just duck over and look in here.
Last chance anyone will ever have to do some sight
seeing on Earth. Talavna's full lips drooped a bit as
she looked over the room ruins. She came from Unith,
one of the few planets where they still kept cities,
(07:06):
and was as much a child of their soaring arrogance
as Jorn of his hills and thunders in great empty seas.
I thought it would be bigger, she said. Well, they
were building this fifty or sixty thousand years ago, said Clothie.
Can't expect too much. There is good art left here,
said Joran, pieces which for one reason or another weren't
(07:29):
carried off. But you have to look around for it.
I've seen a lot of it already in museums, said
tell Yuvna. Not bad montally, cried Cluthie. He touched her
shoulder and sprang into the air. Tag you're it, she
screamed with laughter, and shot off after him. They rushed
across the wilderness, weaving in and out of empty windows
(07:52):
and broken colonnades, and their shouts woke a clamor of echoes,
Joran sighed, I'd better go to bed. He thought, it's late.
The space ship was a steely pillar against the low,
gray sky. Now and then a fine rain would dristle down,
blurrying it from sight. Then that would end, and the
(08:15):
ship's flanks would glisten as if they were polished. Clouds
scudded overhead like flying smoke, and the wind was loud
in the trees. The line of Terrans moving slowly into
the vessel seemed to go on forever. A couple of
the ship's crew flew above them, throwing out a shield
against the rain. They shoveled without much talk or expression,
(08:38):
pushing carts filled with their little possessions. Jarran stood to
one side, watching them go by, one face after another,
scored and darkened by the sun of Earth, the winds
of Earth, hands still grimy with the soil of Earth. Well,
he thought, there they go. They aren't being as emotional
(08:58):
about it as I thought they would. I wonder if
they really do care. Julith went past with her parents.
She saw him and darted from the line and curtsied
before him. Goodbye, good sir, she said. Looking up, she
showed him a small and serious face. Will I ever
see you again? Well, he lied, I might look in
(09:20):
on you sometime. Please do in a few years, maybe
when you can. It takes many generations to raise the
people like this to our standard. In a few years,
to me, she'll be in her grave. I'm sure you'll
be very happy, he said. She gulped. Yes, she said,
so low he could barely hear her. Yes, I know,
(09:44):
I will. She turned and ran back to her mother.
The raindrops glistened in her hair. Zak came up behind Jaron.
I made a last minute sweep of the whole area,
he said, detected no sign of human life. So it's
all taken care of except your old men. Good, said
Jaron tonelessly. I wish you could do something about him,
(10:08):
So do I. Zaak strolled off again. A young man
and woman walking hand in hand turned out of the
line not far away and stood for a little while.
A spaceman zoomed over to them. Better get back, he warned,
you'll get rained on. That's what we wanted, said the
young man. The spaceman shrugged and resumed his hovering. Presently,
(10:31):
the couple re entered the line. The tail of the
procession went by Juran and the ship swallowed it fast.
The rain fell harder, bouncing off his force feel like
silver spears. Lightening winked in the west that he heard
the distant exuberance of thunder. Carmped came walking slowly toward him.
(10:52):
Rain streamed off his clothes and matted his long gray
hair and beard. His wooden shoes made a wet sound
the mud. Jarn extended the force field to cover him.
I hope you've changed your mind, said the fulkission. No
I haven't, said Carmpt. I just stayed away till everybody
(11:12):
was aboard. Don't like goodbyes. You don't know what you're doing,
said Jarn, for the thousandth time. It's plain madness to
stay here alone. I told you I don't like goodbyes,
said Carped harshly. I have to go advise the captain
of the ship, said Jarn. You have maybe half an
(11:33):
hour before she lifts. Nobody will laugh at you for
changing your mind. I won't. Carmped smiled without warmth. You
people are the future. I guess why can't you leave
the past alone? I'm the past. He looked toward the
four hills hidden by the noisy rain. I like it
(11:54):
here galactic. That should be enough for you. Well. Then
Jarn held out his hand in the archaic gesture of Earth, Goodbye, goodbye.
Carmp took the hand with a brief, indifferent clasp. Then
he turned and walked off toward the village. Jarn watched
him till he was out of sight. The technician paused
(12:16):
in the airlocked door, looking over the gray landscape and
the village, from whose chimneys no smoke rose. Farewell, my mother,
he thought, and then, surprising himself, maybe Carmped is doing
the right thing after all, he entered the ship and
the door closed behind him. Toward evening, the clouds lifted
(12:38):
and the sky showed a clear, pale blue, as if
it had been washed clean, and the grass and leaves glistened.
Carmped came out of the house to watch the sunset.
It was a good one, all flame and gold. A
pity little Julith wasn't there to see it. She'd always
liked sunsets. But Julith was so far away now that
(13:01):
if she set a call to him, calling with the
speed of light, it would not come. Before he was dead.
Nothing would come to him, not ever again, He tamped
his pipe with a horny thumb and lit it, and
drew a deep cloud into his lungs. Hands in pockets,
he strolled down the wet streets. The sound of his
(13:22):
clogs was unexpectedly loud. Well Son, he thought, Now you've
got a whole world all to yourself to do with,
just as you like. You're the richest man who ever lived.
There was no problem in keeping alive. Enough food of
all kinds was stored in the town's freeze vault to
(13:44):
support a hundred men for the ten or twenty years
remaining to him. But he'd want to stay busy. He
could maybe keep three forms from going to seed, watch
over fields and orchards, and livestock dust, and wash and
light up in the evening a man ought to hear busy.
He came to the end of the street where it
turned into a gravel road, winding up toward a high hill,
(14:07):
and followed that dusk was creeping over the fields. The
sea was of metal streak very far away, and a
few early stars blaked forth. A wind was springing up,
a soft, murmurous wind that talked in the trees. But
how quiet things were on top of the hill. Stood
(14:28):
the chapel, a small steepled building of ancient stone. He
let himself in the gate and walked around to the
graveyard behind. There were many of the demure white tombstones,
thousands of years of Sola's township, men and women who
had lived and worked and begotten, laughed and wept and died.
(14:49):
Someone had put a wreath on one grave. Only this
morning it brushed against his leg as he went by.
Tomorrow it would be withered, and weeds was st to grow.
He'd have to tend the chapel yard too. Only fitting,
he found his family plot and stood with feet spread apart,
(15:10):
fists on hips, smoking and looking down at the markers.
Girlog Karma's son, Karna Howat's daughter, These hundred years had
they lain in the earth. Hello Dad, Hello mother. His
fingers reached out and stroked the headstone of his wife,
and so many of his children were here too. Sometimes
(15:32):
he found it hard to believe that tall Girlog and
laughing Starm and shy gentle Huan were gone. Had outlived
too many people. I had to stay, he thought, this
is my land, I am of it, and I couldn't go.
Someone had to stay and keep the land, if only
(15:52):
for a little while, I can give it ten more
years before the forest comes and takes itness grew around him.
Woods beyond the hill loomed like a wall. Once he
started violently, he thought he heard a child crying. No,
only a bird. He cursed himself for the senseless pounding
(16:14):
of his heart. Gloomy place here, he thought, better get
back to the house. He groped slowly out of the
yard toward the road. The stars were out now. Carmpt
looked up and thought he had never seen them so bright.
Too right. He didn't like it. Go away, stars, he thought,
you took my people, but I'm staying here. This is
(16:38):
my land. He reached down to touch it, but the
grass was cold and wet under his palm. The gravel
scretched loudly as he walked, and the wind mumbled in
the hedges. But there was no other sound. Not a
voice called, not an engine turned, not a dog barked. No.
He hadn't thought it would be so quiet, quiet and dark,
(17:03):
No lights half to tend the street lamps himself. It
was no fun, not being able to see the town
from here, not being able to see anything except the stars.
Should have remembered to bring a flashlight, but he was
old and absent minded, and there was no one to
remind him. When he died, there would be no one
(17:25):
to hold his hands, no one to close his eyes
and lay him in the earth, and the forests would
grow in over the land, and wild beasts would nuzzle
his bones. But I knew that what of it. I'm
tough enough to take it. Stars flashed and flashed above him.
Looking up against his own will, Harmed saw how bright
(17:47):
they were, how bright and quiet, and how very far
away he was, seeing light that had left his home
before he was born. He stopped, sucking in his breath
between his teeth. No, he whispered, This was his land,
This was earth, the home of man. It was his,
(18:09):
and he was it's. This was the land, and not
a single dustmoat crazily reeling and spinning through an endlessness
of darkened silence, cold in immensity. Earth could not be
so alone. The last man alive, the last man in
all the world. He screamed then, and began to run.
(18:34):
His feet clattered aloud on the road. The small sound
was quickly swallowed by silence, and he covered his face
against the relentless blaze of the stars. But there was
no place to run to, no place at all. End
of Part four, end of the chapter ends by Paul Anderson.
(18:58):
The story read by Phil Shineveret October twenty twelve in
Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
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