TIME AND TIME AGAIN The sequel to 3037 (14 page)

“Today, I was sitting at the entrance to the cave and I thought I heard music
coming
from down the hill.  I was surprised.  These people looked like they were so serious and so busy all the time, I would have never thought of them singing.  Before I knew it I was humming along and the
n I realized it was dad singing, and it was the song we used to sing together.

“Without even thinking about it I got up and walked down the hill and started singing along.  I have never felt so happy in my many lives.  I’m so glad I found y’all.  By the way, why are you staying here instead of the cave?”

Joe had been quiet for awhile and now he laughed and said, “The two caves are in love so we decided to give them some space.”

Josie laughed, “Oh!  That explains it then.  My cave has been making some kind of humming
noise for the last few days and the colors of the f
lowers around my house have become
brighter.  When I hear
d
the singing this morning, I thought it wa
s still the humming of my cave.  I’m so glad we all finally found each other.”

The four of us moved
in
to
a suite in the hotel that Foe and her people had provided for us.  They didn’t use money on this planet but used a kind of barter system.  Seth was paying for our suite by working with Foe.  Now that they had built the
skywheel
and made one for everyone that wanted one, including Irene,
they were trying to make some space ships.

As time went on, Foe’s people worked harder and harder and Seth began to complain, not to Foe but to us.

“Why don’t you just quit?” Joe asked.  “We can go back to Homan.  I’m sure he would welcome us now.  I don’t understand why these people work so hard anyway.  Why do they need spaceships?”

Seth dropped his head and when he looked up I sorrow in h
is eyes, “The truth is
the reason they work so hard and such long hours is because their
planet is dying.  That’s why I feel like I need to help them.”

“How can they tell?” I asked.

“Believe
me mom if their scientists say
the planet is dying, it’s true.  Their sun is going supernova and they don’t have much time.”

The next day we decided to move back to the cave.  Seth took off work
and our large troupe of people made our way to the edge of town and up the hill.  When we got halfway up the hill, I began to notice small holes in the ground.  The closer to the cave we got, the more I saw.

Soon we were spread out all over the hillside looking at these holes.  Josie began to laugh, “They’re babies.  The two caves have procreated.”

Seth looked lost in thought.  Then he smiled and said, “I wonder how long it will take for them to grow as big as our cave?”

“What are you thinking?” Joe asked.

“If they get as big as our cave, we won’t need to build spaceships.  We can use these.
 
If they grow fast enough.”

George, one of Joe’s band members spoke up, “Our cave has always grown big enough to accommodate all the people we have picked up.  Why don’t we just ask Foe and her people if they want to come with us
?
”

I laughed
at George, “Do you really think Homan and his lover will leave their babies here?”

He looked embarrassed, “Oh, I hadn’t thought of that.  Well, in that case, we’re all stuck here until the babies get big enough to be on their own.  I sure hope they grow up before that sun burns out.”

CHAPTER 27

Every day for days we swept the hillside trying to see any growth in the tiny caves.  We saw no growth for weeks.  In the meantime Seth and Foe’s people were working long hours, trying to build some spaceships to get off the planet.  We helped in any way we could.  We women
fixed meals for everyone so they wouldn’t starve.  Our men did all the heavy lifting that was needed.  Foe’s people were smart but they weren’t very strong physically.

Joe and the people from their planet had been technically strong but that had been before
the cave had removed all the computer chips
from their brains.
  They remembered a little and were
able to help in building a crude computer and that helped speed things up.

Everyone was stressed and I decided to try to communicate with Homan again.  I didn’t tell anyone what I had planned in case I was unable to connect with him.

I waited until everyone else was busy doing something else, which was around three o’clock in the afternoon.  I entered the passageway and sat on the floor in comfortable position.  I took a deep breath and waited.  A phrase that I had heard before somewhere came into my head, “When the pupil is ready, the teacher will appear.”  I took another deep breath and whispered, “I am ready.”

When Homan spoke, it wasn’t inside my head like it had always been before, but I heard his voice for the first time.

“The babies will be ready long before the sun burns out.  Don’t worry, Ashley.  Tell the people below to relax.  They need to learn to play and not just work.  It is important
for them to learn this before they get to their
next destination.
”

“But the babies haven’t even grown an inch and it’s been months.”

“Growth is not linear either, Ashley.  Even with human babies, don’t they sometimes have growth spurts?  You will get up one morning and
the, what you call caves, will be ready to swim into outer space.  There will be plenty of room for everyone.  But you must teach these people to play instead of work.  Think of way to help them, Ashley.”

When I left the cave I was so lost in thought that I didn’t even hear Joe calling
to me.  I was trying to think of
things we could do with Foe’s people to teach them to relax and have fun.

“Honey, are you okay?” Joe asked when he caught up with me.  “You were in the passageway a long time.  What did Homan have to say?”

“The caves will be ready long before the sun burns out.  In the meantime, we have to teach Foe’s people how to relax and have fun.”

CHAPTER 28

I walked over to the building where Foe was working with my son.  “Can I take you to lunch?” I asked her.

She looked confused, “Take me to lunch?  What does that mean?  You’re going to physically
pick me up and carry me to get food?  No, we eat while we work.  Your people have already made us waste too much time.  We have to keep busy.  We have a deadline here.”

“This is going to be even harder than I thought,” I was thinking to myself.  “Look, I only need about ten minutes of your time.”

She sighed and laid down the piece of metal she was trying to bend.  Seth watched us the whole time.  “Oh all right,” She said, “Come this way.

I expected her to lead me to a private office and was surprised when she led me outside.  We stood there and she looked up at the sun.  “Go ahead and talk,” she said, “You don’t have much time left.”

I felt panicky.  How was I going to say what I needed to say in such a short period of time?  “What if there was another way?” I asked and, as I asked it, I wondered where it had come from.

“Another way for what?”

“What if you already had a way to transport yourself from here without building the spaceships?”

She looked both confused and impatient, “But we don’t.”

“You don’t but we do.”

“You live in caves.  How can you know anything?  You’ve lived in caves for years, apparently and have only recently come out of them and began to communicate with us.”

“Is that what you think?  That we were always in the caves?”  I laughed and thought to my
self, “Of course she would think
that.  She never saw us arrive and she’s seen no spaceship.  To her logical min
d, that would be the only expla
nation.
”

She looked at the sun again and said, “Your time is up.  I’ve got to get back to work.”  She spun on her heels and walked off without looking back.  All I had accomplished was to make her angry at me for wasting her time.

I was lost in thought going back to the cave and met up with Joe.  “From the
look on your face, I take it things
didn’t go so well.”

“She gave me so little time and spent most of that time telling me, basically that we didn’t know anything, that we were cave dwellers who only recently came out of the caves.  She thinks we have been here the whole time, Joe.”

He stared off into space for awhile and then said, “Let’s take a break from this and go home and make love.  Then we’ll think
of something.  We always do, o
r I should say, you always do.”

After the wonderful lovemaking we always had together we were dozing off and I kept getting a mental picture of Seth holding hands with the young girl after the picnic.  I sat up in bed and Joe reached for me.

“Lay back down, Ashley.
  What’s the matter, baby?”

“Joe, in every major change throughout the ages and on all planets we have been on, who are the people who started change?”

“Well, different people.  I don’t know what you’re asking.”

“It usually happens through rebellion or revolutio
n, Joe.  Think about it.  I’ve
liv
ed in the sixties on earth.  I
remember all the changes that took place and all the turmoil?  It is usually the younger people who start the unrest that ultimately leads to change.  I think Seth should bring his girlfriend home for supper tonight.”

CHAPTER 29

It turned out tha
t Seth had the same idea.  He le
ft work earlier than usual and got home at 8:15 bringing the young woman with him.  We were
sitting around drinking wine, having just put the smaller children to bed.  Some of the older ones were playing games or swimming.

They were holding hands and the girl looked like she was in a dream as she looked around the city.  “This is Sig,” Seth said.  “It’s what I call her.  Her real name is one of those long scientific names that everyone here has.”

He introduced all of us and then went off with her to show her around.  They walked off into the hills and we watched them go.  “Maybe together they can convince the others to go with us when the time comes,” Joe said.

When they came down out of the hills, both of them were weighted down with fruit and vegetables.

Sig smiled when they came within shouting distance and yelled, “I’m taking these to some of my people.  I want them to see what’s here so they will come and visit, if that’s all right.”

“It
’s
perfectly all right,” Joe yelled back. 
“
They are all welcome here and always will be.”

The next morning when we came out of the cave, we saw the hillside covered with what look
ed like
inflated
balloons in every
color you
can imagine.  As we watched, they lifted off the ground and started floating through the air and I realized they were
the offspring of the two caves.

They were so beautiful they took my breath away.  Joe hugged me and we grinned at each other.

Seth had left for work before we had gotten up and now he was leading a big crowd of young people up the hill and they all gazed in amazement.  They were talking so fast I couldn’t keep up with what they were saying.

Seth came over and said to us, “They want to know if they can really leave here in these things and I told them that as soon as they were big enough we could all leave in them.  The adul
ts
won’t even come
out
look at them. 
Foe said it was illogical that they could ride in those things.”

We continued to watch the colorful offspring and Joe slowly said, “You know, Ashley they look just like our spheres that we sleep on and sit in.  I’m wondering if what we use as furniture is, in fact, eggs.  These things here have no opening but are spherical.  Do you think they will have an opening later on?”

“Hmm I hadn’t thought of that, although I did wonder where we would enter these babies.  Maybe the opening comes later.”

Throughout the day we would walk outside and look at the offspring.  Toward sunset some of Foe’s people became curious and wonder
ed over and joined the others.

We took blankets and picnics for Foe’s people and eventually Foe herself came to look.  She join
ed
Joe and me on our blanket and accepted the wine and sandwiches we offered her.

“I don’t understand,” She said as she watched the sky.  “It seemed so illogical and yet I’m seeing it with my own eyes.  Seth told me that you and your people came here in one such as this.  There’s no technology involved.  You’re traveling in a living thing.  I’ve never heard of anything like it.”