"Ask away." He was suddenly bitter and very offended. I saw the reason in an instant Do not think, I told him, that I have influenced anything you have thought or done. I am only an observer.My sole function is to appreciate beauty.
"How interesting!" he sneered. "How soon is it goingto happen?"
What?
"The thing that is causing you to leave."
Oh, that...
I was not certain what to tell him. What could he do,anyhow? Suffer a little more, perhaps."Well?"
My time is up, I told him.
"I see flashes," he said. "Sand and smoke, and a flaming baseball."
He was too sensitive. I thought I had covered thosethoughts.
Well... The world is going to end at one o'clock,. ...
"That's good to know. How?"
There is a substratum of fissionable material, whichProject Eden is going to detonate. This will produce anenormous chain reaction....
"Can't you do something to stop it?*'
/ don't know how. I don't know what could stop it. Myknowledge is limited to the arts and the life-sciences.—You broke your leg when you were skiing in Vermontlast winter. You never knew. Things like that, I canmanage. ...
"And the horn blows at midnight," he observed.
One o'clock, I corrected. Eastern Standard Time.
"Might as well have another drink," he said, looking athis watch. "Ifs going on twelve."
My question ... I cleared an imaginary throat.
"Oh, yes, what did you want to know?"
—The other half of the tragic response. I've watchedyou go through it many times, but I can't get at it. I feelthe terror part, but the pity—the pity always eludes me.