Harold and Maude by Colin Higgins Page A

scared.”
    â€œScared? Swimming underwater with that oxygen device of yours? I was petrified.”
    â€œGo on, you loved it.”
    â€œWell, of course, it was a new experience.”
    They both laughed. Harold bought tickets for theFerris wheel, and they were helped to their seat and locked in.
    â€œOff we go!” said Maude, as they sailed above the carnival lights and up into the night sky. “Isn’t this fun? I used to ride the Prater wheel all the time.”
    â€œToo bad you lost your umbrella in the reservoir,” said Harold.
    â€œOh, well,” said Maude. “It served its purpose. That’s all you can ask of anything—or anybody.”
    â€œYour plan certainly served its purpose. If you could have seen my uncle’s face.” Harold laughed. “The Army won’t want me now.”
    Maude laughed too. “Well, the Army was all right in its day,” she said. “Like the Church. Together they protected us from the bad guys on the one hand and the devil on the other. But—as everything will—the foe has changed. We have met the enemy and he is us. So we’ll just have to sit down now and reason out some better solutions than defenses with weapons and dogmas.”
    â€œDo you think we’ll succeed?”
    â€œOh, certainly. Keep the faith! The way I see it we’re now in the cocoon. The day of the caterpillar is over. The time of the butterfly is at hand.”
    â€œOh, we’ve stopped,” said Harold.
    â€œAnd right at the top. What fun!”
    â€œLook at the people down on the pier. They seem so small. Maude! Wait! What are you doing?”
    â€œJust rocking the boat,” cried Maude, wildly swinging the seat.
    Harold was very relieved when they stepped off the Ferris wheel and went into the penny arcade.
    They played the pinball machines and tested their grips. But it was the hand-operated soccer game that gave them the most fun.
    Maude right away got into the football spirit. She cheered her team on enthusiastically and manipulated her men to kick goal after goal.
    Fifteen minutes later a crowd had gathered around her. A short Italian man played with her against a couple wearing matching Hawaiian shirts. The crowd cheered on every play and slapped each other on the back whenever a goal was scored.
    Harold stole away and put a penny in a machine that stamped out letters on a metal disk. As he marked the letters and pulled the lever, he listened to the cheering and smiled.
    â€œYou sure have a way with people,” he said as they left the amusement park and walked along the pier.
    â€œWell,” said Maude, “they’re my species.”
    Harold bought two candy apples, and they sat out on the end of the pier to eat them.
    â€œLook!” said Harold, pointing. “A shooting star!”
    â€œI saw it,” said Maude. “My, my. There’s always an oddball, even in the firmament.”
    Harold looked up at the stars. “They’re beautiful, aren’t they?”
    â€œYes. They’re old friends. I used to watch them in Bavaria. They can be very … comforting.”
    â€œHow do you mean?”
    â€œWell, for example, I used to look up and think that light traveling from a distant star would take over a million years to reach us. In a million years Nature evolved the wing of a bird. So, maybe by the time that light reaches us, mankind will have learned to deal with evil. Maybe he will have phased it out altogether, and we’ll all be flying around … like angels.”
    Harold smiled. “You should have been a poet.”
    â€œOh, no!” cried Maude. “But I should have liked to be an astronaut. A private astronaut, able to just go out and explore the unknown. Like the men who sailed with Magellan. I want to see if we really can fall off the edge of the world.”
    She laughed. “What a joke it will be,” she said, making a large circle with her candy