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Each night, as we watched the stars, always shifting and changing, there was something unspoken between us. Not just what Bob had done to put an end to Grisnos and constant war. Something else. Something even deeper and more far reaching. We waited to see an airplane or a helicopter or a parachute blotting out the sun. It was unlikely, but the thought was always there, tickling the backs of our brains.

Gradually other people began to come. I don’t know how they found us. They were different but we welcomed them. We had plenty of land, plenty of space. We welcomed the company. Then we stopped looking at the skies and started looking around us. These new people seemed pure and innocent but we wondered if they were thinking the same things we were. Thinking the same things about us. Thinking about that grain of greed or violence or whatever it is that turns people against one another.

Bob and I continued to have our nightly sessions at the thinking table. Over time, everyone began coming to these sessions. The table remained the same size but there were now many chairs gathered around it. Together, we sat there and we talked and we thought and we planned a war against a monster. It was a war that didn’t involve any guns or property or religion or resources. It was a real war. Perhaps the only war.