The old man subsided then, waiting. He did not understand. But the alien had found him, and the presence of Pretrie had made things easier for him in these last years. He was grateful, and wise enough to remain silent. They sat there thinking their own thoughts, and Pederson’s mind winnowed the wheat of incidents from the chaff of life spent.
He recalled the days alone in the great ships, and how he had at first laughed to think of his father’s religion, his father’s words about loneliness: “No man walks the road without companionship, Will,” his father had said. He had laughed, declaring he was a loner, but now, with the unnamable warmth and presence of the alien here beside him, he knew the truth.
His father had been correct.
It was good to have a friend. Especially when the Gray Man was coming. Strange how he knew it with such calm certainty, but that was the way of it. He knew, and he waited placidly.
After a while, the chill came down off the hills, and Pretrie brought out the treated shawl. He laid it about the old man’s thin shoulders, where it clung with warmth, and hunkered down on his triple-jointed legs once more. “I don’t know, Pretrie,” Pederson ruminated, later.
There was no answer. There had been no question.
“I just don’t know. Was it worth it all? The time aspace, the men I’ve known, the lonely ones who died and the dying ones who were never lonely.”
“All peoples know that ache, old man,” Pretrie philosophized. He drew a deep breath.
“I never thought I needed anyone. I’ve learned better, Pretrie.”
“One never knows.” Pederson had taught the alien little; Pretrie had come to him speaking English. It had been one more puzzling thing about the Jilkite, but again Pederson had not questioned it. There had been many spacers and missionaries on Mars.
“Everybody needs somebody,” Pederson went on.
“You will never know,” Pederson agreed in emphasis. Then added, “Perhaps you will.”
Then the alien stiffened, his claw upon the old man’s arm. “He comes, Pederson old man.”
A thrill of expectancy, and a shiver of near-fright came with it. Pederson’s gray head lifted, and despite the warmth of the shawl he felt cold. So near now. “He’s coming?”
“He is here.”
They both sensed it, for Pederson could feel the awareness in the Jilkite beside him; he had grown sensitive to the alien’s moods, even as the other had plumbed his own. “The Gray Man.” Pederson spoke the words softly on the night air, and the moon valleys did not respond.
“I’m ready,” said the old man, and he extended his left hand for the grasp. He set down the bulb of vik with his other hand.
The feel of hardening came stealing through him, and it was as though someone had taken his hand in return. Then, as he thought he was to go, alone, he said, “Good-bye to you, Pretrie, friend.”
But there was no good-bye from the alien beside him. Instead, the Jilkite’s voice came to him as through a fog softly descending.
“We go together, friend Pederson. The Gray Man comes to all races. Why do you expect me to go alone? Each need is a great one.
“I am here, Gray Man. Here. I am not alone.” Oddly, Pederson knew the Jilkite’s claw had been offered, and taken in the clasp.
He closed his blind eyes.
After a great while, the sound of the harp crickets thrummed high once more, and on the porch before the hutch, there was the silence of peace.
Night had come to the lonely lands; night, but not darkness.
