“Saltwater taffy, balloons, laughter, hot dogs, ribbons and bows, gingham and lace at collar and cuffs. Smell of frying and best scent and a lot of sweat. Did I mention laughter? Believe I did. Key ingredient in any vacation, laughter. Ice cream on a stick. Fiddler in the park. Fresh-baked apple pie with a spoon of cream on top. Kids, everywhere. Taxi-dancers. Jazz bands. Linked arms along the boardwalk. Hot lips together under the boardwalk. Talking of hopes for better days. Dreams. Laughter and dreams, Jak.”
53
The raft was silent at the litany from the long-dead, long-gone past, words that Ryan had only ever read. Doc’s head dropped on his chest, and he continued to speak, softer, his voice matching the stillness of the river.
“Emily and I had but one true vacation together. My work… I couldn’t… Had I but known what the future held. Ah, the future. We talked much of the future that summer’s day in ‘ninety-six. Rachel toddling bravely be-side us, and young Jolyon on his blanket.”
A flock of what looked like pigeons flew from some sycamores on the eastern bank, the sun striking the bars of vermilion on their fluttering wings. The river was in a wide sweep to the right, flowing slowly and calmly. Doc’s voice became even quieter.
“I had friends among the Apaches of New Mexico Territory, and we visited them. They made us welcome. It was ten years to the very day that the old fox, Geronimo, surrendered to General Nelson Miles. Wonder what hap-pened to… ? Never looked after I’d been trawled on the chron-jump. Never thought to. The sun shone every day. The Apaches loved Rachel and Jolyon. Happiest time… laughter… Harriet Beecher Stowe died that summer, as I recall, and there was some news of prizes for scientists by the man who… dynamite… name’s gone. Emily joked I would win one of them, one day. Oh, God, but I was never so happy as on that vacation. That’s what it was, Jak,” he said, turning his face away so that none of them could see the tears.
around noon they passed through the shattered re-mains of what must once have been a sizable ville. Doc’s guess was a town called Kingston, but the effort of recall-ing so much of his distant past had wearied the old man, and he sat down for much of the time, trailing his bare
54
feet over the stern, gazing at their jagged wake, locked in his own thoughts. Not even Lori could tug him back for several hours.
Ryan realized just how frail Doc Tanner’s hold on reality truly was.
“let’s pull her in,” Ryan said a little after two o’clock in the afternoon.
“Hours of daylight left,” J.B. protested, looking up at the sky, puzzled. “No storm threatening, so why stop?”
“A vacation,” Ryan said, grinning. “There’s a clear-ing to the left there. I can see a waterfall, white over the rocks. Good defense all around. Haven’t seen any mu-ties. Let’s just stop, like Doc said, and rest up. We’ll start again at dawn.”
“Gaia, but that’s a wonderful idea, lover.” Krysty sighed and ran her fingers through her mane of scarlet hair so that it rippled against her skin like a wave of fire.
It was an idyllic place.
Ryan and Jak scouted the region around the landing place while J.B. held the mooring line ready for a swift flight. But they found no trace anywhere of any human footprints. Ryan checked the radiation count, taking a reading that dropped below the orange. Everything that he’d ever heard made him certain that the entire north-east industrial area had been nuked almost out of exis-tence, leaving the place a throbbing hot spot that for a long time actually glowed at night, according to some of the older men and women at Front Royal ville.
The water that tumbled eighty or ninety feet from the lip of an escarpment was fresh and sweet without any kind of chem taste.
55
There were ample deadfall branches that would make an excellent fire-one with a glowing heat but very little smoke to attract any potential enemies.
Doc lay down on the gently sloping beach of soft white sand and instantly fell asleep. Lori sat beside him, plait-ing a chaplet of tiny white and golden flowers that she’d found growing in an abundant profusion near the border of the forest.