frightened tears start and then I heard Lytha's trusting voice-until your promise is kept. All my fear dissolved. All my panic and fright blazed up suddenly in a repeat of the Call. 'Listen!' I cried, my voice high and excited, my heart surging joyously, 'Listen!' 'Oh, David! Oh, 'Chell! I've been Called! Don't you hear it? Don't you hear it!' 'Oh, Mother, no! No! You must be mistaken!' David loosed himself and bent over me. 'No,' whispered 'Chell. 'I feel it. She is Called.' 'Now I can stay,' I said, fumbling at the straps. 'Help me, David, help me.' 'But you're not summoned right now!' cried David. 'Father knew four days before he was received into the Presence. We can't leave you alone in a doomed, empty world!' 'An empty world!' I stood up quickly, holding to David to steady myself. 'Oh, David! A world full of all dearness and nearness and remembering! And doomed? It will be a week yet. I will be received before then. Let me out! Oh, let me out!' 'Stay with us, Mother!' cried David, taking both my hands in his. 'We need you. We can't let you go. All the tumult and upheaval that's to start so soon for the Home-' 'How do we know what tumult and upheaval you will be going through in the Crossing?' I asked. 'But beyond whatever comes there's a chance of a new life waiting for you. But for me-What of four days from now? What would you do with my cast-aside? What could you do but push it out into the black nothingness. Let it be with the Home. Let it at least become dust among familiar dust!' I felt as excited as a teener. 'Oh, David! To be with Thann again!' I turned to Lytha and quickly unfastened her belt. 'There'll be room for one more in this ship,' I said. For a long moment, we looked into each other's eyes and then, almost swifter than thought, Lytha was up and running for the big door. My thoughts went ahead of her and before Lytha's feet lifted out into the open air, all the Old Ones in the ship knew what had happened and their thoughts went out. Before Lytha was halfway up the little hills that separated ship from ship, Timmy surged into sight and gathered her close as they swung around toward our ship. Minutes ran out of the half hour like icy beads from a broken string, but finally I was slanting down from the ship, my cheeks wet with my own tears and those of my family. Clearly above the clang of the closing door I heard Simon's call. Good-by, Gramma! I told you it'd be all right. See-you-soon! Hurry hurry hurry whispered my feet as I ran. Hurry hurry hurry whispered the wind as I lifted away from the towering ships. Now now now whispered my heart as I turned back from a safe distance, my skirts whipped by the rising wind, my hair lashing across my face. The six slender ships pointing at the sky were like silver needles against the rolling black clouds. Suddenly there were only five-then four-then three. Before I could blink the tears from my eyes, the rest were gone, and the ground where they had stood flowed back on itself and crackled with cooling. The fingers of the music drew me back into the home. I breathed deeply of the dear familiar odors. I straightened a branch of the scarlet leaves that had slipped awry in the blue vase. I steadied myself against a sudden shifting under my feet and my shield activated as hail spattered briefly through the window. I looked out, filled with a great peace, to the swell of browning hills, to the upward reach of snow-whitened mountains, to the brilliant huddled clumps of trees sowing their leaves on the icy wind. 'My Home!' I whispered, folding my heart around it all, knowing what my terror and lostness would have been had I stayed behind without the Call. With a sigh, I went out to the kitchen and counted the four rosy eggs in the green dish. I fingered the stove into flame and, lifting one of the eggs, cracked it briskly against the pan. That night there were no stars, but the heavy rolls of clouds were lighted with fitful lightnings and somewhere far over the horizon the molten heart of a mountain range was crimson and orange against the night. I lay on my bed letting the weakness wash over me, a tide that would soon bear me away. The soul is a lonely voyager at any time, but the knowledge that I was the last person in a dying world was like a weight crushing me. I was struggling against the feeling when I caught a clear, distinct call-'Gramma!' 'Simon!' My lips moved to his name. 'We're all fine, Gramma, and I just Saw Eve with two children of her own, so they will make it to a new Home.' 'Oh, Simon! I'm so glad you told me!' I clutched my bed as it rocked and twisted. I heard stones falling from the garden wall, then one wall of my room dissolved into dust that glowed redly before it settled. 'Things are a little untidy here,' I said. 'I must get out another blanket. It's a little drafty, too.' 'You'll be all right, Gramma,' Simon's thought came warmly. 'Will you wait for me when you get Otherside?' 'If I can,' I promised. 'Good night, Gramma,' said Simon. 'Good night, Simon.' I cradled my face on my dusty pillow. 'Good night.' 'Oh!' breathed Meris, out of her absorption. 'All alone like that! The last, last anyone, anywhere-' 'But she had the Home longer than anyone else,' said Valancy. 'She had that dear familiarity to close her eyes upon before opening them in the Presence-' 'But how could Bethie possibly remember-' began Meris. 'It's something we can't quite explain,' said Jemmy. 'It's a Group consciousness that unites us across time and distance. I guess Simon's communicating with Eva-lee before he was Called brought her Assembling more directly to us. Eve, you know, was Bethie's mother.' 'It's overwhelming,' said Karen soberly. 'We know, of course, about the Home and how it was lost, but until you're actually inside an emotion, you can't really comprehend it. Just imagine, to know that the solidness of earth beneath your feet is to become dust scattered across the sky so soon-so soon!' The group was silent for a while, listening to memories and to a Past that was so Present. The silence was suddenly shattered by a crashing roar that startled everyone into an awareness of Now. 'Good heavens!' cried Meris. 'What's that!' 'Adonday veeah!' muttered Jemmy. 'They've got that old clunker going again. Johannan must have done something drastic to it.' 'Well, he started it just in time to stop it,' said Valancy. 'We've got a journey to go and we'd better eat and run. Karen, is it all ready?' 'Yes,' said Karen, heading for the shadowy house. 'Meris has a lovely kitchen. I move that we move in there to eat. It's chilling a little out here now. Jemmy, will you get the boys?' 'I'll set the table!' cried Lala, launching herself airborne toward the kitchen door. 'Lala.' Valancy's voice was quiet, but Lala checked in mid-flight and tumbled down to her feet. 'Oh!' she said, her hands over her mouth. 'I did forget, after I promised!' 'Yes, you did forget,' said Valancy. her voice disappointed, 'and after you promised.' 'I guess I need some more discipline,' said Lala solemnly. 'A promise is not lightly broken.' 'What would you suggest?' asked Karen from the kitchen door, as solemnly as Lala. 'Not set the table?' suggested Lala, with a visible reluctance. 'Not tonight,' she went on gauging carefully the adult reaction. 'Not for a week?' She sighed and capitulated. 'Not set the table for a whole month. And every meal remember a promise is not lightly broken. Control is necessary. Never be un-Earth away from the Group unless I'm told to.' And she trudged, conscientiously heavy-footed, into the house with Karen. 'Isn't that a little harsh?' asked Marls. 'She does so love to set the table.' 'She chose the discipline,' said Valancy. 'She must learn not to act thoughtlessly. Maybe she has a little more to remember in the way of rules and regulations than the usual small child, but it must become an automatic part of her behavior.' 'But at six-' protested Meris, then laughed '-or is it five!' 'Five or six, she understands,' said Valancy. 'An undisciplined child is an abomination under any circumstances. And doubly so when it's possible to show off as spectacularly as Lala could. Debbie had quite a problem concerning control when she returned from the New Home, and she was no child.'
