I, Mars

How it begins

The old man felt his heart grow small and like a cool stone. He felt the wind blowing in off the dry Martian seas and the blue hills of Mars. After twenty years of silence and cobwebs and now, tonight, on his eightieth birthday, with a ghastly scream, this phone had wailed to life. “Who did you think it was?” said the voice. “A rocket captain? Did you think someone had come to rescue you?” “Good Lord. Sixty years! Have you been sitting there that long? Waiting for a rocket to come from Earth to rescue you?” “Yes.” The dry pale lips trembling. “I understand. I remember. We are one. I am Emil Barton and you are Emil Barton.” “With one difference. You are eighty. I am only twenty.