The three of them had topped the rise that hid Cappy's farm from theirown. Three of those tree-things had swayed over Cappy's spring for a farlonger time than Man had occupied this dreadful planet. Gnarled blue trunks,half-hidden by yellow leaf-needles stretching twenty feet into the sky.Something like the hoary mountain hemlocks she and Ted had been foreverphotographing on their Sierra honeymoon, seven life-long years ago. Besides, I didn't know for sure, till wesaw the tree-things around the cabin." "I couldn't have keptyou home without-without saying too much, worrying you-with theEarth-ship still a year away. "You insisted on coming," he reminded her gently. She saw Ted start, scalded by the splash of her self-directed anger, sawhim try to convert his wince into a shrug. "Howdid you know what we'd find here? And why didn't you tell me, so I couldkeep Richard at home?" "Why did you tell Richard to stay outside, just now?" she demanded.
Watching compassionately, Naomi was suddenly struck by thematter-of-fact way Ted examined the body.
She'd been annoyed whenCappy failed to show up with the present he'd promised Richard.Annoyed-while the old man pulled a blanket over his head, turned hisround face to the wall, and died. She and Ted could at least have been with him, if they'd known.īut they'd been laughing and singing in their own cabin only a mileaway, celebrating Richard's fifth birthday. And to havelet Cappy die alone, in this strange world. She'd walked over with son and husband, expecting nothing more shockingthan an ostentatiously stolen kiss. Her mouth had been set for a sip of his home brew, her eyes had picturedthe delight he'd take in and give to her little boy. To her little boy, Cappywas a combination Grandpa and Santa Claus to herself, a sort of newlymet Old Beau. She'd come to call on a friend, shereminded herself, a beloved friend-round, white-haired, rosy-cheeked lonely because he'd recently become a widower. Naomi's mind circled frantically, contrasting her happy anticipationswith this shocking actuality. After all his wire-pulling to getinto the First Group, and his slaving to make a farm on this alienplanet, dead in bed! Stiff with shock, Naomi Heckscher stood just inside the door to Cappy'sone-room cabin, where she'd happened to be when her husband discoveredthe old man's body. _The single thing to fear was fear-ghastly, walking fear!_
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