'Or haven't you drawn them yet?'
'They're gone,' he said somberly, 'Along with all of
Scandinavia, my home..... A huge rift opened between them and the
mainland, here, and swallowed them like Atlantis. I watched it happen,
day by day, year by year. And Sweden. It was one of the saddest
experiences of my life. To watch the destruction of that beautiful
land, from which my ancestors set out in many-oared galleys, practically
rowing themselves, when the winds weren't favorable, all the way to
northern Canada, centuries before Columbus. When I think of the courage
and determination that must have taken, to brave the storms and chilling
waters. All lost, the chain of humanity broken forever, ending with me,
in the grim twilight of a futile existence.'
He forgot his own emotions as he found the young girl collapsed upon his
chest, sobbing like a frightened child. After a moment's hesitation,
in which he saw that restraint would be tantamount to cruelty, he put
his arm around her and brought her close, kissed her forehead and said
gently. 'Don't cry, little Sylvie (the name he had heard her
father use those many years before). It's over now.'
'But it's not over,' she said wretchedly. 'It's not.
And if you only knew what I was going to do. You'd hate me.
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