36
TALES FROMTHE FUTURE
to pay. This person put every last penny he had into this project.”
“Well, maybe not every last penny,” Heitzman objected.
“But that’s what people say – every last penny. And do you know why
he’s doing all of this?”
“Why?” John Heitzman asked calmly.
“Now this is the really beautiful part of what’s going on. He did this so
that his beloved would be able to live surrounded by all this beauty. They
say she also does landscape design. And that she’ll also have an estate
somewhere around here. But no one knows where she is and who she is. Can
you imagine what will happen when people find out who she is?”
“What?”
“What do you mean, ‘what?’ Everyone will want to get a good look at her
right away and even touch her, as if she were some kind of goddess. Me, per-
sonally, I’d like to touch her. She must be a very unusual person. Maybe she
looks unusual on the outside, or maybe, she’s unusual inside. ‘Not a single
woman in the world could inspire a man to do such an unusual and lovely
thing.’ That’s what everyone around here is saying. So, everybody is going to
want to see this man and his unusual woman, and touch them, even.”
“I imagine they will,” John Heitzman agreed, and then he added: “So
what should we do about that, Sally?”
“Why we?” Sally asked in amazement.
“Because that unusual woman, the one for whose sake everything’s going
on around here – is you, Sally.”
Sally looked at John without blinking, trying to make sense of what she’d
heard. Something sank in, and the teacup fell from her hands, but no one
paid any attention to the sound of the breaking cup. John Heitzman turned
at the sound of a falling chair and saw that his son had impulsively sprung
from his seat. John Junior went up to his father and, speaking in a soft bari-
tone, said excitedly:
“Father! Father!Can I hug you?”
John Heitzman hugged his son first and heard the beating of his heart.
John Junior embraced his father and whispered, elated:
“I’ve never heard of anyone declaring his love in such a powerful way,
