The Sudden Star by Pamela Sargent

out what to do." He looked around for Ildico. The blond girl was standing near the bushes that bordered the clearing. She stood very still, her head turning slowly as she surveyed the forested land. She leaned forward, as if hearing something, then turned around and came back to them. She sat down.
    Then he noticed the silence. Except for the murmur of the guards as they talked, there was no sound except for an occasional twittering or a brief summer breeze rustling the leaves. The silence pressed against his ears.
    "Strange, isn't it?" He jerked up, startled. "I mean, the quiet," Ildico said. He nodded and wrapped his arms around his legs, resting his head on his knees. It was cool out here in the country, cooler than the city; he wondered why.
    Ildico crawled over to Aisha and put an arm around her shoulder. "It'll be all right," Ildy said. "Take my word." Aisha said nothing.
    There they sat, Aisha's dark head on Ildico's shoulder. Their faces were shadowed. Aisha's red scarf, long and tasseled, fluttered against her white shirt and tan slacks, then settled on Ildy's pink blouse. They looked so pretty that Juan wanted to sit there forever watching them. He smiled, thinking about how much he loved them. They would all be together; the farm couldn't be that bad as long as they were with him. If the two girls would only smile, the picture would be perfect.
    But Aisha only stared, and Ildico did not smile.
     
    Juan lay wrapped in a blanket under the truck. He had a hard-on and he couldn't sleep; the ground was too hard. He recalled being able to sleep in alleys; now he knew he was getting soft. The silence thundered in his ears.
    He reached for Ildico, touching her shoulder, then pushed his body against her. She didn't move; she was dead to the world. He sighed and turned toward Aisha's blanket.
    The blanket was there. Aisha was gone. Startled, he propped himself up on an elbow; he hadn't even heard her move. He rolled out from under the truck slowly. Still hugging the ground, he looked around the clearing.
    Two guards had been posted. They circled the area slowly, looking out over the highway and then around at the woods. One of them motioned silently to the other. They stood together near the end of the dirt road.
    Then he saw Aisha. She was standing against a truck, almost invisible in the dark; she had covered her white shirt with a dark jacket. She looked over at the guards, then suddenly took off in the opposite direction, heading toward the woods.
    He scurried after her, trying not to think of how threatening the dark trees appeared, or of what the guards might do if he was seen. Aisha slowed as she reached the woods and moved slowly among the trees. Juan, seeing the leaves and twigs before him, hoped he could step through them silently, without alerting the guards. The darkness was thick; he could barely see. A tree loomed over him; startled, he stepped back.
    He huddled in the blackness under the tree, wishing he was back in his blanket under the truck. This was too much to suffer, even for a friend. He turned his head and saw her, standing nearby, a dark shape lit by moonlight. He moved toward her. She turned and saw him.
    He went to her, almost stumbling as his foot hit a rock. His big toe hurt. He seized her arm, pinching the skin. "What're you doing?" he whispered, digging his fingers into her muscles.
    She shook him off, then leaned toward him. "How do you know," she said, so softly he could hardly hear her, "that they aren't waiting until we're all asleep to kill us?"
    For a moment, she seemed reasonable. He shook his head. "Why should they?"
    "It's a good spot for it. Ernie's close to Ortega."
    Juan shook his head again. "Nah," he whispered. "Too many guards the old man trusts are here." He grabbed her sleeve and pulled her back into the shadows. "You got to stop it," he went on. "We better go back before they know we're gone."
    "They won't check. What if we wait here until morning? If nothing happens, we can go