Clifford D. Simak - Aliens for Neighbors 07 - Death Scene

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Death Scene

Cifford D Simak

She was waiting on the stoop of the house when he turned into the driveway

and as he wheeled the car up the concrete and brought it to a halt he was

certain she knew, too.

She had just come from the garden and had one arm full of flowers and she

was smiling at him just a shade too gravely.

He carefully locked the car and put the keys away in the pocket of his

jacket and reminded himself once again, "Matter- of-factly, friend. For it is

better this way."

And that was the truth, he reassured himself. It was much better than the

old way. It gave a man some time.

He was not the first and he would not be the last and for some of them it

was rough, and for others, who had prepared themselves, it was not so rough

and in time, perhaps, it would become a ritual so beautiful and so full of

dignity one would look forward to it. It was more civilized and more dignified

than the old way had been and in another hundred years or so there could be no

doubt that it would become quite acceptable.

All that was wrong with it now, he told himself, was that it was too new.

It took a little time to become accustomed to this way of doing things after

having done them differently through all of human history.

He got out of the car and went up the walk to where she waited for him. He

stooped and kissed her and the kiss was a little longer than was their regular

custom--and a bit more tender. And as he kissed her he smelled the summer

flowers she carried, and he thought how appropriate it was that he should at

this time smell the flowers from the garden they both loved.

"You know," he said and she nodded at him.

"Just a while ago," she said. "I knew you would be coming home. I went out

and picked the flowers."

"The children will be coming, I imagine."

"Of course," she said, "They will come right away."

He looked at his watch, more from force of habit than a need to know the

time. "There is time," he said. "Plenty of time for all of them to get here. I

hope they bring the kids."

"Certainly they will," she said. "I went to phone them once, then I

thought how silly."

He nodded. "We're of the old school, Florence. It's hard even yet to

accept this thing--to know the children will know and come almost as soon as

we know. It's still a little hard to be sure of a thing like that."

She patted his arm. "The family will be all together. Tbere'll be time to

talk. We'll have a splendid visit." "Yes, of course," he said.

He opened the door for her and she stepped inside.

"What pretty flowers," he said.

"They've been the prettiest this year that they have ever been."

"That vase," he said. "The one you got last birthday. The blue and gold.

That's the one to use."

"That's exactly what I thought. On the dining table."

She went to get the vase and he stood in the living-room and thought how

much he was a part of this room and this room a part of him. He knew every

inch of it and it knew him as well and it was a friendly place, for he'd spent

years making friends with it.

Here he'd walked the children of nights when they had been babies and been

ill of cutting teeth or croup or colic, nights when the lights in this room

had been the only lights in the entire block. Here the family had spent many

evening hours in happiness and peace--and it had been a lovely thing, the

peace.

For he could remember the time when there had been no peace, nowhere in

the world, and no thought or hope of peace, but in its place the ever-present

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Clifford D. Simak - Aliens for Neighbors 07 - Death Scene

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