Childhood's End - Arthur C. Clarke [75]
Yes, Jeff was a perfectly ordinary boy. So George reassured himself as they went for walks or rides together over the Island's rather restricted terrain. They would talk as sons and fathers had done since the beginning of time-except that in this age there was so much more to talk about. Though Jeff never left the island, he could see all that he wished of the surrounding world through the ubiquitous eye of the television screen. He felt, like all the colonists, a slight disdain for the rest of mankind. They were the elite, the vanguard of progress. They would take mankind to the heights that the Overlords had reached-and perhaps beyond. Not tomorrow, certainly, but one day.
They never guessed that that day would be all too soon.
Chapter 18
The dreams began six weeks later.
In the darkness of the sub-tropical night, George Greggson swam slowly upwards towards consciousness. He did not know what had awakened him, and for a moment he lay in a puzzled stupor. Then he realized that he was alone. Jean had got up and gone silently into the nursery. She was talking quietly to Jeff, too quietly for him to hear what she was saying.
George heaved himself out of bed and went to join her. The Poppet had made such nocturnal excursions common enough, but then there had been no question of his remaining asleep through the uproar. This was something quite different and he wondered what had disturbed Jean.
The only light in the nursery came from the fluoropaint patterns on the walls. By their dim glow, George could see Jean sitting beside Jeff's bed. She turned as he came in, and whispered, "Don't disturb the Poppet."
"What's the matter?"
"I knew that Jeff wanted me, and that woke me up."
The very matter-of-fact simplicity of that statement gave George a feeling of sick apprehension. "I knew that Jeff wanted me." How did you know? he wondered. But all he asked was;
"Has he been having nightmares?"
"I'm not sure," said Jean, "he seems all right now. But he was frightened when I came in."
"I wasn't frightened, Mummy," came a small, indignant voice. "But it was such a strange place."
"What was?" asked George. "Tell me all about it."
"There were mountains," said Jeff dreamily. "They were ever so high and there was no snow on them, like on all the mountains I've ever seen. Some of them were burning."
"You mean-volcanoes?"
"Not really. They were burning all over, with funny blue flames. And while I was watching, the sun came up."
"Go on-why have you stopped?"
Jeff turned puzzled eyes towards his father.
"That's the other thing I don't understand, Daddy. It came up so quickly, and it was much too big. And-it wasn't the right colour. It was such a pretty blue."
There was a long, heart-freezing silence. Then George said quietly, "Is that all?"
"Yes. I began to feel kind of lonely, and that's when Mummy came and woke me up."
George tousled his son's untidy hair with one hand, while tightening his dressing-gown around him with the other. He felt suddenly very cold and very small. But there was no hint of this in his voice when he spoke to Jeff.
"It's just a silly dream; you've eaten too much for supper. Forget all about it and go back to sleep, there's a good boy."
"I will, Daddy," Jeff replied. He paused for a moment, then added thoughtfully, "I think I'll try and go there again."
***
"A blue sun?" said Karellen, not many hours later. "That must have made identification fairly easy."
"Yes," Rashaverak answered. "It is undoubtedly Aiphanidon Two. The Sulphur Mountains confirm the fact. And it's interesting to notice the distortion of the time scale. The planet rotates fairly slowly, so he must have observed many hours in a few minutes."
"That's all you can discover?"
"Yes, without questioning the child directly."
"We dare not do that. Events must take their natural course without our interference. When his parents approach us-then, perhaps, we can question him."
"They may never come to us. And when they do, it