20
TALES FROMTHE FUTURE
“What’s your name?”
“I’m Sally. I’m seven years old. I live here in the servants’ house, because
my daddy is the gardener here. He knows a lot about plants and is teaching
me about them. I know how to grow flowers already, too, and how to graft
branches onto trees. So what’s your name and where do you live?”
“I live in the country house. My name is Johnny.”
“So you’re the owner’s son?”
“Yes, his son.”
“Come on, Johnny, let’s play in the little house together.”
“How should we play?”
“We’ll play that we live in the house, just like grownups do. You’ll be the
owner, since you’re the owner’s son, and I’ll be your servant, since my
father’s one of the servants.”
“That won’t work,” Johnny noted. “A servant has to live in the servants’
quarters. Only the husband, the wife and their children can live in the coun-
try house.”
“Then I’ll be your wife,” Sally blurted out, and then asked, “Can I be your
wife for a while, Johnny?”
Johnny didn’t answer. He went inside the house, looked around, then
turned toward Sally, who was still standing outside the doorway, and
answered casually:
“Okay, come on in and pretend you’re my wife. We have to think how to
set things up inside.”
Sally came into the little house, looked into Johnny’s eyes with tender-
ness and delight and said, almost whispered:
“Thank you, Johnny. I’ll try to be a good wife.”
Johnny didn’t visit his little house every day. He wasn’t always allowed to
play in the garden during walk time. Accompanied by bodyguards, he’d visit
a city park, or Disneyland, or go horseback riding.
But almost every time he did manage to visit the house, Sally was there,
waiting for him. And each time he came, Johnny was interested to see what
had changed in the little house. First a throw rug Sally had bought appeared
on the floor. Then little curtains on the window opening and over the en-
