“I don't know,” said the Prophet. “Every time I come here, I see it in a different shape. Sometimes these tall thin towers, sometimes big crystal mounds, sometimes just people living on a sea of crystal fire. I think this city was built many times in the past. I think it will be built again.”
“Are you going to build it? Is that what Prophetstown is for?”
Tears came from the Prophet's eyes– spilling from his one good eye, oozing out of the slack lid of the other. “Red man can't build this place alone,” he said. “We are part of the land, and this city is more than the land alone. The land is good and bad, life and death all together, the green silence.”
Alvin thought of his sense of green music, but he didn't say nothing, cause the Prophet was saying things he wanted to hear, and Al was smart enough to know that sometimes it's better to listen than to talk.
“But this city,” said the Prophet, “the crystal city is light without dark, clean without dirty, healthy without sick, strong without weak, plenty without hungry, drink without thirst, life without death.”
“The people in that place, they aren't all happy,” said Alvin. “They don't live forever.”
“Ah,” said the Prophet. “You don't see the same that I see.”
“What I see is, they're building it.” Al frowned. “At one end they're building it, and at the other end, it's falling down.”
“Ah,” said the Prophet. “The city I see will never fall.”
“Well what's the difference? How come we don't see the same thing?”
“I don't know, Roach Boy. I never showed this to anybody. Now go back down, wait for me below. I have things to see before time starts again.”
Just thinking about going down made Alvin start to sink, until he was clear to the bottom, on the shiny clear floor. Floor? It could have been the ceiling for all he knowed. There was light coming up from there just like it was shining through the other walls, and he saw pictures there, too.
He saw a huge cloud of dust spin faster and faster, but instead of spitting out dust it sucked it all in, and suddenly it started glowing, and then it caught fire, and it was the sun, just as plain as could be. Alvin knew somewhat about the planets, cause Thrower talked about them, so he wasn't surprised to see them glowing points of light that pretty soon got dim. And after a while instead of dust mixed with darkness, it was all either worlds or empty space, pretty much. He saw the Earth, so small, but then he came closer and he saw how big it was, spinning so fast, one face of the Earth lit up from sunlight, the other face dark. He stood in the sky, it seemed, looking down on the lit place, but he could see all that was going on. First bare rock, spouting volcanoes; then out of the ocean, plants spreading out, growing tall, ferns and trees. He saw fish leaping in the sea, crawly life on the shore where the tide came in, and then bugs and other small critters, hopping and nibbling on leaves and catching each other and eating each other up. Them animals kept getting bigger and bigger, so fast Alvin couldn't follow the changes, just the Earth spinning and him watching, huge monstrous creatures like he never heard of, with long snakey necks some of them, and teeth and jaws to tear down trees with a single bite, it looked like. And then they were gone, and there were elephants and antelopes and tigers and horses, all the life of the earth, getting more and more like what Alvin thought animals ought to look like. But nowhere in all this did he see a man. He found apes and hairy things that hit each other with rocks, things that walked on their hind legs but looked about as dumb as frogs.
And then he did see some folks, though he wasn't sure at first cause they were Black and he hadn't seen but one Black man in his life, a slave owned by a peddler from the Crown Colonies, who happened to come through Vigor Church maybe two years back. But they looked like human people, all right, Black or not, and they were pulling fruit down out of trees and berries off of bushes, feeding each other, a passel of pickaninnies following in their tracks. Two of the young ones got to fighting, and the big one killed the little one. The papa came back then, and kicked the one who did the killing, made him go away. Then he picked up the dead one and brought him back to the mama, both of them crying, and they laid that dead child down and covered him up with rocks. Then they gathered up their family and walked on, and after just a few steps they were eating again, and the tears stopped, and they went on, just went on. These are folks, that's sure, thought Alvin. This is just the way human people are.
The Earth kept turning, and by the time it come round again there was all kinds of folks, dark ones in the hot countries, light ones in the cold countries, with all shades in between. Except when America came under the light of the sun. In America folks was pretty much all the same kind, all Red, whether they lived north or south, hot or cold, wet or dry. And the land was at peace, compared to the other part of the world. It was strange for him to see, because when the big part of the land came by, with all its different races and nations, why, it changed with every sweep of the Earth, whole countries moved from one place to another, everything always shuffling around, and wars every minute everywhere. The smaller land, America, it had some too, but it was all slower, gentler. The people lived in a different rhythm. The land had its own heartbeat, its own life.
From time to time more people would come from the old world– fishermen, mostly. Off course, led astray by storms, running from enemies. They'd come, and for a time they'd live their old-world life in America, trying to build fast, and breed fast, and kill as much as they could. Like a sickness. But then they'd either join in with the Reds and disappear, or get killed off. None of them ever kept up their old-world ways.
Until now, thought Alvin. Now when we came, we were just too strong. Like getting a couple of colds maybe, and you begin to think you won't never get real sick, and then you get a dose of smallpox and you know that you were never truly sick before at all.
Alvin felt a hand on his shoulder.
“So there is where you looked,” said the Prophet. “What did you see?”
“I think I saw the whole creation of the world,” said Al. “Just like in the Bible. I think I saw–”
“I know what you saw. We all see this, all who have ever come to this place.”
“I thought you said I was the first you brought.”
“This place– there are many doors inside. Some walk in through fire. Some walk in through water. Some through being buried in the earth. Some by falling through the air. They come to this place and see. They go back and tell what they remember, as much of it as they understood, and tell it, as much as they have words to say, and others listen and remember, as much as they can understand. This is the seeing place.”
“I don't want to leave,” said Alvin.
“No, and neither does the other one.”
“Who? Is there somebody else here?”
The Prophet shook his head. “Not his body. But I feel him in me, looking, out of my eye.” He tapped the cheekbone under his good eye. “Not this eye, the other.”
“Can't you tell who it is?”
“White,” he said. “It doesn't matter. Whoever it is did no harm. I think maybe– will do a good thing. Now we go.”
“But I want to know all the stories in this place!”
The Prophet laughed. “You could live forever and not see all the stories. They change faster than a man can see.”
“How will I ever come here again? I want to see everything, all of it!”
“I will never bring you back,” said the Prophet.
“Why? Did I do something wrong?”
“Hush, Roach Boy. I will never bring you back, because I will never come here myself again. This is the last time. I have seen the end of all my dreams.”