Jamison painfully made his way up the path that led to his
favorite spot on top of the knoll. The cane helped some but he
still kept his eyes glued carefully down at his feet, watching
for anything that could upset his balance and cause a tumble.
When he went, it would be his way and not laying for days out in
the open before death finally released him.
He reached the top at last and heaved a grateful sigh. It had
been very difficult this time. There weren�t many more trips left
in him. �Maybe this would be the last one after all, he thought.
He reached the beautifully carved marble bench that sat alone in
the tall grass. As he eased himself carefully down his hands
lingered lovingly on the surface and caressed the smooth stone.
There was something so lastingly beautiful about marble that
always gave off a sense of time and peace for him.
His eyes left his feet at last now that he no longer had to
protect them and stopped at the sight of the tall swaying grass
surrounding the bench. He gave a snorting chuckle.
"Damn fools! Did they think I was going to be cutting all those
lawns?"
Suddenly the chuckling became a quiet flow of tears and a tight
pain around his chest. He fought the pain and the tears.
"Yes, Christopher Jamison, last human on Earth. This will have to
be the last trip up here. Your time has come, I think. Give it
up. She isn�t coming. Maybe it was all a joke. Why is it that I
can never quite get that idea out of my head. God! Wouldn�t that
be something?"
Jamison lifted his head and looked out over the vista before him.
What remained of his tears still clouded his vision and his eyes
were unable to see the sunlit parkland that spread out below the
knoll. It didn�t matter! He knew it by heart. Remembered every
year of its growth and how it came to be. Remembered dimly the
past and what it once was.
The knoll where he sat was just below the top of what was still
called,'Queen Elizabeth Park' and overlooked the old city of
Vancouver. "Well, they wouldn�t recognize it now." he thought. In
his mind he saw it as it had been in his youth. He knew it so
well that his lack of sight was no barrier to the memories of
his city.
Gone were all the homes and stores. Looking out across the low
rolling land to where he knew the ocean lay, he thought of all
the many homes that had crowded the city of his birth. He knew
that some of them still stood here and there in groups and
clusters amongst the trees, like monuments to man, but most were
gone and had been torn down and replaced by grass for the
teeming wildlife that moved in herds across it now. What he saw
was not the raw nature of the past before man came here but a
carefully cultivated wilderness. Carefully laid out and planned
down to the last detail.
"If I hadn�t lived through it, I never would have thought it
possible. Let�s see now, how old am I? ...must be about a hundred
and seventy or is it seventy-one? �and that would be..mmmm." his
mind lost the thought of his musings and drifted for awhile.
He was back again in 1999, after the telecast by �Phea� had
finished.
The shock and the loss the world had gone through were back again
as clear as if it was yesterday. The training if a life time had
helped him keep his head during the crises. He had found it a
help to keep the routine going. He still reported for work
each day for want of something better to do as had a lot of
people as a method of keeping away insanity.
The world hadn�t gone to pieces the way everyone expected it to
at first. People were just too badly shook up to do much right
away. And by the time they came out of the shock the anger was
dead. Apathy set in for awhile, but humans just have too much of
plain old life force to remain that way for long.
The memory he knew he was trying to put off for a little while
was crowding in on him. He skittered around it in his mind the
way one holds off on a desired sweet, wanting to make it linger
and last longer. His mind drifted back to those days.
He had gone up into the mountains of the North Shore the Sunday
following the telecast to be alone. He needed the peace the
mountains always gave him when his mind was tired of thinking. He
had been leaning against a tree looking out over Howe Sound and
the harbour. The city he loved lay spread out beneath him and
the inlets and bays sparkled like jewels as the sunlight
reflected off the water. The beauty of it from up there always
tore at his heart. It had never been a sight he wanted to share
with anyone. It had always made him feel too sentimental and not
part of the image of tough cop he displayed to the world he
lived in.
"Why do you hide what is inside of you, Christopher? Why are you
afraid to share yourself with others?"
It was so unexpected, his heart jumped. He turned around and saw
her standing a few feet away, staring at him in puzzled
intensity. It was Pheadeknosses!!!
"I couldn�t go without saying goodby to you, Christopher Jamison.
But now I feel that I have intruded on your privacy. Do you
mind?"
He drew a deep breath to steady himself before he answered her.
"How could I mind? I don�t think there is a human that�s on this
earth right now that wouldn�t give anything to talk personally
with you. But why me? I mean, why would you want to talk with
me?"
He watched her face as intently as she had been gazing at him a
moment earlier. His heart was pounding from the unexpected
excitement of this encounter. He was glad that he was still
holding onto the trunk of the tree or both his hands would be
trembling.
At his words she turned away from him and looked out over the
inlet where his eyes had looked a moment before. "Is that so
strange to you, Jamison? Does it not occur to you that we are
just as eager and as curious to know more about you on a personal
level?"
"No, I suppose I never thought of it like that before."
What she had said had startled him. "Ah, do you mind if I ask you
a question?"
She quickly turned about and smiled at him, "No! Of course not."
"Are you speaking to me? I mean real words...or are you using
that telepathy thing. I seem to hear you so clearly, I find it
hard to believe it�s only in my head."
She turned fully around to stand facing him, "I am speaking to
you the same way you do to your friends. I have been learning to
speak with my voice since I have been here. Does it sound all
right? I�m not very good at your tongue yet."
This time it was his turn to smile as broadly as she was. "You�re
doing just fine. You have a nice voice. I noticed that the first
time we met."
"I can use telepathy if you would prefer that."
"I�m not sure. Don�t you use it all the time?"
"Yes, on my world. But it seems to be a little difficult here. I
think it�s because you don�t read my thoughts back to me. It�s a
little like the telephone you use for conversations, when only
one person speaks there is no communication is there? You�d be
the one doing all the listening and that doesn�t seem fair to
you."
"I see what you mean. We�ve always dreamt of being able to read
other peoples minds, but I�ve always wondered what it would be
like. I mean...how would you keep your privacy? Isn�t it hard to
live in a world were everybody knew what you were thinking all
the time? I mean, wouldn�t that be dangerous or cruel?"
"Before I answer your question, do you mind if I sit down on that
log over there? I tire easily on your planet. The gravity here
is more than I am used to. I�m afraid I�d never be able to live
here in comfort, although our agents say we can get conditioned
to it in time."
"Of course. Here, let me help you. Those shoes don�t look rugged
enough for this neck of the woods." As he gingerly took her by
the elbow and steered her towards the log that lay before them,
she broke out into peals of laughter that rang through the
woods. Her speaking voice had been throughty deep for such a
small woman and the laugh that was echoing about his ears made
Jamison stop to look at her. There was something so warm and
earthy about this woman that he was beginning to like. He was
beginning to lose the awe he had first felt in her presence. With
the loss of awe and her appealing warmth he began to lose the
nervousness he had been bothered by. "And just what is so funny?"
"Your words! I find them so strange. Do these woods have necks?"
And she was off again, with her laughter ringing true, like a
deep bell.
Jamison just shook his head as they seated themselves on the log.
"Lady, you are something else." And with that, they were both
laughing. It felt good to laugh. He hadn�t felt like this for a
long time and the release was an emotional catharsis for him.
It ended at last and they both sat silent in contentment until
Phedeknosses began to speak.