"If it's gross," Hag said. "I won't want it."
"Rick and Amy will. They'll eat anything."
Amethyst swiped at her sister. Rick scowled, but he didn't deny it.
On the opposite side of the circle, Topaz was talking to Dawn while Josh watched and worried. Suppose the other Karpov sisters decided to go back to Earth? Then Topaz would surely leave, too; but Dawn wanted to stay with Gussie; and Topaz was far better than Josh or anyone else at talking to Dawn. And Josh had to stay with his cousin. But he wanted to be with Topaz, too.
Dawn suddenly turned away from Topaz. "G-ss-ee coming," she said, with no doubt in her voice.
Everyone stopped what they were doing. Josh looked around, and saw nothing. "Where?"
But Dawn was again taking no notice of anything. She was carefully inscribing something in a bare patch of red soil. When she was finished, she picked up a handful of the powdery grit that she had scraped away and examined it closely.
"Earth," she said. "Right?"
"That's earth all right," said Topaz. "In your hand. And it's red. You know that word, too."
Dawn gave her a puzzled look. "Earth!" she said again, with great emphasis. She pointed down.
Topaz gasped. "Look, Josh. Everybody!"
In the dirt, Dawn had carefully written five letters: E—A—R—T—H.
But Dawn still looked puzzled. "Earth?" she said again. Now she lifted her hand, and allowed the dusty red soil to trickle out onto the ground.
Sig and Sapphire looked not at Dawn, but at each other. "I think she's right," Sapphire said.
"So I guess that settles it." Sig surveyed the scene around them, from the purple sward at their feet to the distant hills that caught the last gleam of sunlight. "We stay."
A hundred yards away, over the brow of the hill, Gussie and three of her family were slowly approaching. They had an addition, a tiny baby rupert still too small to walk. Gussie waved a greeting. Ruby, Rick and Hag waved back.
"You're quite right, Dawn," Topaz said softly. She bent down and picked up a handful of red dirt. She took Josh's hand, held it, and allowed the soil to sift into his open palm. "This is Earth."
THE END
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Putting Up Roots
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One