Thandie and Elena bent down to inspect Boris. Thandie was dark and tall, Elena shorter, blond. They were both old, though not so old as Lily, not so old they couldn’t walk around anymore. Thandie ruffled his hair. “And you must be Boris. Ain’t you the cutest button?”
Lily said, “He’s half Russian, a quarter English, and a quarter Quechua- if you believe what Ollantay said about himself.”
“I bet he’d be proud to see his grandson whatever he was.”
“Have you any coins?” Boris asked. “Do you do tricks?”
“Don’t pester, Boris,” Lily said.
A man stepped forward. “Hello, Lily Brooke.”
“Jang-Jang Bahadur, it’s you, isn’t it? Well, you could knock me down. Still a handsome devil, aren’t you?”
“And you are the light of my eye, Lily Brooke.”
“Liar.”
“He’s been working for us, Lily,” Thandie said. “Him and his son, anyhow.”
“As a sherpa? Never went back to the law, eh?”
“Nobody needs lawyers.” He gestured at the rock. “But look at that! Just my luck, there goes the last mountain and nobody needs sherpas either. I am out of a job again.”
“You’ll survive, if you survived the stalag that Tibet became. I always knew you would. That’s gone now, hasn’t it? Gone with all the rest and good riddance. And you survived to see this, the waters covering the very roof of the world.”
“I am blessed-”
Lily went white, and clutched her chest. Thandie looked concerned. Boris’s mother Ana came to stand by Lily, as she did at such times, and stroked her gray hair.
“So many questions,” Lily said, whispering.
“I know, Lily,” Thandie said, kneeling before her and facing her. “Maybe you should try to rest.”
A gong sounded somewhere, off on another raft, the sound pealing over the water. “It’s time,” people called, from raft to raft. “It’s time!” Everybody on all the rafts turned to the rock in the ocean.
Boris looked too. He saw that the water had risen, even while Thandie had been talking to Grannie Lily. Already there really wasn’t much left of the rock, just a few outcroppings with the sea lapping around them. It was just a rock, Boris thought, exasperated. But his mother held firmly on to his hand. He wished it would just go ahead and drown and get it over so he could swim.
“Questions,” Lily said, her voice a gasp. She beckoned to Thandie. “Listen. I saw Gary. We met. This is years ago. He said I’d find you here today. He sent his love.”
Thandie kissed her cheek. “Thanks.”
“He has this theory. About life on an ocean world. Storms and stuff. A new equilibrium.”
Thandie snorted. “Gary’s full of shit. He hasn’t done any real science for thirty years. I love him dearly.”
“But do you think, you know, it might be possible? Is that the future? Is that what it’s all been about? Earth finding a new way to sustain life?”
“I don’t know,” Thandie said. “None of us knows.”
That great gong rang again, and even Boris turned to watch the rock.
“And,” Lily said, plucking at Thandie’s sleeve, “and this, this is a good one. It keeps me awake at night. Well, lots of things keep me awake at night. Thandie, I sailed on Ark Three, myself. And I saw Ark One fly off, or I believe I did. But-”
A gust of wind brought the waves crashing over the rock, and for an instant it was covered entirely by the water. Even the flag got a soaking. The wave washed away, and the rock rose in the air again, but it was wet now and it obviously wasn’t going to show for much longer.
Another wave broke. The rock didn’t reappear. A kind of ragged cheer broke out across the rafts.
The moment was over. The little band of rafts began to break up. Everybody started talking about real things like fishing, and if it would rain today, turning their backs on the rock. Boris gazed at that tire swing, longing to try it out. It was the most wonderful thing he had ever seen.
Grannie Lily still plucked at Thandie’s sleeve. “But,” she whispered, “but, Thandie- what is Ark Two?”
