She was still there. She'd come and went, or at least he perceived her as coming and going. Hard to tell when your mind wandered.
"They worry about you," she said. "I can tell. Even Augur, in his own way."
He'd always refused to talk to her, figuring that she was either a fragment of his imagination or the Taelons taking the opportunity to see if he was really loyal to them. She'd seemed intimidated by him, but she never stayed away. "I can't," she'd said.
"Why?" he'd asked her once, one of the few times that they'd 'talked'.
"I'm the only one that can see you, as far as I can tell. I didn't want to leave you alone, not without any contact."
That was right. She'd said the first time they'd met that she was a telepath in a community of telepaths. She probably considered being alone as a horrible thing, much like the Taelons did. But she still 'read' as human.
"Rocky tells me what's going on, over there," the female 'voice' continued. "He gives me the impressions. He's about the only one that believes that you're here, you know. The rest think I'm crazy. Sometimes I do wonder about that."
Most of the time, she talked about trivial matters- the weather, world news, local news, what was going on in her life. As if he was in coma and she was trying to do him some good. For a while, he thought he was in a coma. She told him she hadn't the slightest idea where he was.
"I've been taking care of your orchids, William," she said. "Nobody else was. People think I'm a ghost when they see me. I'm there and then I'm not."
"Sometimes I wonder if you are," he admitted one day.
"I wonder sometimes if you are, too," the woman said. "But I can't stop believing that you aren't. You feel too strong to be one."
"Thank you," he said, and then the conversation turned back to her rosebushes.
And now, today, news of his companions as usual. He had no idea how long he'd been there. He'd never thought to ask. Her 'voice' broke into his thoughts, although it sounded like it was growing slightly faint. "William!"
"What?" he asked. She sounded alarmed.
"Something is happening. To you, I mean. I can feel it."
Then he was aware, too, of something happening. "What?" he asked.
"I don't know," she said. "But it's something good, I think. I've got to tell Rocky about this!"
Boone felt a momentary panic as she disappeared for a moment. He realized he'd become attached to his strange visitor, attached to her presence. Then she was back. "Don't worry, I'll be here for you...." she said.
And then, suddenly, he was looking at Sandoval. And she was gone.
-end