A Tale for Tomorrow

several stoves and with considerable stored staples and running water as well. Two or three of them went and opened the big front door and stepped onto the wide porch of pale stone overlooking a garden gone wild and, at a short distance, found a warehouse and a couple of sheds. When daylight began to fade, a few of them tried in vain to activate switches placed near the doors, till a burly man, his gestures measured and precise, located a central main nearer to the large kitchen and they could turn on a few low voltage bulbs. And when night fell they all, as if in tacit agreement, sat back on their beds and looked at one another; no one recognized any of the others. During their earlier impromptu explorations, as if inadvertently words had been uttered, spontaneous exclamations or half-formed questions, not expecting a reply; yet they had thus been able to figure they did speak a common language, even if their accents and their use of the words differed. Then a man with a lean and fine body and a golden skin raised a hand and slowly and distinctly proposed that they shift all the beds in a circle, so that each of them could at any moment see all the others. Without a word, they all stood up again and there was a general movement until a circle was obtained, leaving, after several Once they had all settled, a long silence filled the space.

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