The Cold Pools by Chris Ward Page B

the glow of the rising moon.  Occasionally we saw a splash as a fish jumped, or heard a bird calling from the shrubs and bushes that encircled the lake.
    ‘We’re alone out here,’ I said, looking across at Karen’s silhouette.  ‘All the other tourists are in restaurants or karaoke bars.’  I smiled.  ‘It’s just like the real world.’
    ‘Nothing changes,’ Karen said.  ‘Except everything.’
    ‘The whole world was like this once,’ I said.
    Karen reached out a hand and brushed the side of my head.  I felt the calluses and sores on her palm rough against my skin, but beneath them was only tenderness.  I could feel her eyes on me, and was thankful that the darkness hid my tears.
    Antarctica was the only heavily populated continent now, containing a string-bean two hundred million people.  The Himalayan Plateau and parts of northern Russia were home to a scattering, mostly research teams and treasure hunters.  There were rumors of die-hards surviving in the desert wastes in the very middle of the planet, but most were just stories, and no one cared to go and find out.  And even our continent was close to dying, with the rains coming less and less, the vegetation that could survive the harsh temperatures shrinking year by year.  And the people too, exposed too often to the sun’s harsh rays, were going the way of Karen, or worse.  By luck or fate I had escaped it so far, but my time could come any day.
    ‘Thank you,’ Karen said at last.
    ‘What for?’
    I sensed her smiling.  ‘You know.  For bringing me here.’
    ‘I just wanted you to be happy.’
    ‘I am.  And it doesn’t matter...’
    ‘What doesn’t matter?’
    She looked away from me.  ‘Lewis, I know .’
    ‘What do you –’ I began, and then understood.
    She held up a small glossy pamphlet and waved it back and forth as though fanning herself: the tourist brochure the travel agent had given us.  ‘I know about this place,’ she said.  ‘I looked on the Net.  I was excited, and I couldn’t help myself.  They don’t really try to hide the fact.’
    I sighed.  ‘It’s still cold, though.’
    ‘And that’s good enough for me.’
    She leaned closer and I slipped my arm around her.  Looking out on the lake, I felt for the first time that everything was perfect.  It didn’t matter that Karen was dying, or that I soon would.  It didn’t matter that everything at Cold Pools was fake, that huge machines had built the entire glacier, that massive, hidden turbines up on the mountains behind the bluff kept the air cool, that if I walked up to the glacier and pressed my hand against it the surface would feel dry and cool to the touch, would feel like the mixture of stone and plaster that it was, this monstrous white wave in the middle of this construction of the end of the world.
    ‘I want to swim,’ Karen said again, untangling herself from me and standing up.  ‘I want to swim right up to it.’
    ‘No, no, you can’t.’
    ‘Lewis, I love you.  I’ve always loved you and I always will.  Please, if you love me, let me swim.’
    ‘Karen...’ I began, but I made no move to stop her as she walked to the edge of the terrace.
    The moon broke through the clouds long enough to light her undressing, and I looked upon her silhouette as she stretched out her arms over her head and then reached down to touch her toes.  Her body looked as lithe and firm as it had the day I’d met her, and I knew Karen was thankful the night hid the scars and the sores that covered her beautiful skin.
    ‘Goodbye, Lewis,’ she whispered.  ‘I’ll see you soon.’
    ‘Take care, Karen,’ I whispered back, and for a moment I thought I saw her smile.  Then she was gone, diving into the lake, breaking through the surface with a soft splash and then reemerging a few metres out, her arms working in lazy strokes as she kicked away from me.  I watched for a few minutes as she moved out into deep water, the sound of her splashes growing