Beside Still Waters, Part 2

Our chores are done for today. Let’s sit on the packing cases and watch the stars.

And you’re not a romantic?

Why are you always so calm?

Because you always argue.

You are so naive, and yet content to be. How come?

I am an idealist! And how can you not know that fact? You built in my answers.

I often forget that.

That means you have accepted me as a friend. A friend of long years’ standing.

The thing I don’t understand is why a man like you wants to live here? It’s all right for me. No one cares about me, and I never gave much of a damn about anyone. But why you?”

Here I have a whole world, where on Earth I had to share with billions. I have the stars, bigger and brighter than on Earth. I have all space, close, like still waters. And I have you, Mark.

Now, don’t go getting sentimental on me–

I’m not. Friendship counts. Love was lost long ago, Mark. The love of a girl named Martha, whom neither of us ever met. And that’s a pity. But friendship remains, and the eternal night.

You’re a bloody poet.

A poor poet. * * * * * Time passed unnoticed by the stars, and the air pump hissed and clanked and leaked. Mark was fixing it constantly, but the air of Martha became increasingly rare. Although Charles labored in the fields, the crops, deprived of sufficient air, died. Mark was tired now, and barely able to crawl around, even without the grip of gravity. He stayed in his bunk most of the time. Charles fed him as best he could, moving on rusty, creaking limbs.

What do you think of girls?

I never saw a good one yet.

Well, that’s not fair. Mark was too tired to see the end coming, and Charles wasn’t interested. But the end was on its way. The air pump threatened to give out momentarily. There hadn’t been any food for days.

But why you? Gasping in the escaping air. Strangling.

Here I have a whole world–

Don’t get sentimental–

And the love of a girl named Martha. From his bunk Mark saw the stars for the last time. Big, bigger than ever, endlessly floating in the still waters of space.

The stars …

Yes?

The sun?

–shall shine as now.

A bloody poet.

A poor poet.

And girls?

I dreamed of a girl named Martha once. Maybe if–

What do you think of girls? And stars? And Earth? And it was bedtime, this time forever. Charles stood beside the body of his friend. He felt for a pulse once, and allowed the withered hand to fall. He walked to a corner of the shack and turned off the tired air pump.

I hope he finds his Martha. And then the tape broke. Charles’ rusted limbs would not bend, and he stood frozen, staring back at the naked stars. Then he bowed his head.

The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures; he leadeth me …