"I need a break," he said feeling inert.
"Let's take a walk," she suggested. "It is the easiest way to free yourself
from your usual patterns."
They had just come back from days/months - time in space runs inconspicuously-
mission in space. A pollution project weighed heavily upon them. They
tried valiantly to sort things out, to reshuffle all data, yet the results
were scanty. He definitely didn't feel in high spirits and she, being
his faithful companion and more than a friend throughout these somewhat
lonesome years in exploration, was a bit off color herself. She had
learned to read his mind, and in such moments of torpor, knew that there
was something important he tried to figure out with his fragile philosophical
instruments. There was one quality she adored in him - his sanguine
view of success. It was why she never gave him up. She sensed his restlessness
at the moment and prodded him again.
"A quiet walk will do us good."
"Yes, you're right. I need one, a nice walk to make me relish the brilliance
of the sun, a traipse under the mystery of the moon, beneath the open
sky where stars twinkle as diamonds when we gaze at them here on earth,
and look so different when we're out in the open space. I feel so unique
when I am back here in this world"
"In this world?" she queried not understanding.
"Oh, I know it's absurd. Not completely cured of that old habit coming
up from my ancestors. It should be on this world. But it is how I feel;
I still think of it as 'in' instead of 'on' Earth and still believe
in sunrise and sunset, although I know that the sun doesn't rise or
fall. I know that we are technocrats and those words like dawn and dusk
are not used anymore. I know I should say we are into sight of the sun
or into the shadow zone instead of"
"Why that teacup storm?" she interrupted. "Why talk of the sun coming
up or going down when you know quite well it never leaves from the solar
system?"
He looked at her in amazement and abruptly roared with laughter. She
sensed the humor herself. His outburst was so infectious that she could
not suppress her own. As the guffaw subsided, they became aware of their
surroundings.
Having walked an unconscious distance, they now stood amidst a simple,
elegant suspended bridge. The river underneath was flowing at an easy
pace making little ripples now and then. On one side of the bank, vegetation
rioted as if inviting some loner to walk into its majestic forest of
pine trees. Opposite was barren and rocky with some scrubs here and
there resembling a canvas that Nature has left unfinished.
They swept a comprehensive glance the Great City in the distance, one
resembling the shape of the shadow cast over the sea by a hypothetical
gigantic palm tree. Crossing the span they strolled into the forest.
The afternoon seemed lovely and the air delicate with the scent of the
pine trees. The diminished buzz of the metropolis reached them, somewhat
softened and peripheral reminding them of its not-too-distant groan.
