Thea Alexander - 2150 A.D.

"No closer, Carol, please," I stammered, backing away.

She stopped and began talking soothingly to the by now intensely angry snake in her arms. Surprisingly, in a very few seconds the sound of the frantic rattling ceased and I could see the snake's tightly coiled body beginning to relax. As I watched this seeming miracle unfold before me I realized that once Carol had picked the snake up I had been convinced that no harm would come to her even when the deadly reptile was at its angriest. My fear had all been for myself. I was filled with shame and embarrassment.

"I don't blame you for being afraid," Carol said. "Obviously you've suffered great pain and anguish, possibly death, from contact with snakes in past lives. The fear generated then was so powerful that it has stayed with you."

"I can believe that," I replied, "because as far back as I can remember I've always been afraid of snakes. Obviously this one recognized my fear and responded to it."

"That's right, Jon," she agreed. "No animal can attack a person who is demonstrating Macro love."

"Okay," I acknowledged, "Macro man isn't afraid, but obviously I'm not very Macro in this area. Is there anything I can do about it?"

"Sure," Carol answered. "Since you have already experienced Macro contact you have only to remember it sufficiently to have all fear removed from your mind. You can't be afraid of yourself!"

I was skeptical of this answer, and in the end it was only because of my telepathic contact with Carol that I succeeded in perfecting the recall. Then we maintained a very strong telepathic bond which continued to support our Macro contact memory, as, after almost forty-five minutes, I was finally able to approach the snake, touch it, and even hold it in my hands. It was, of course, my own doubt that caused me to have such difficulty.

We placed the snake back in his sunning spot and continued our walk. I asked Carol if she thought I was cured of my fear of snakes. She laughed and told me that it wasn't all that easy, but having experienced such a successful confrontation with my phobia, the fear would be greatly diminished. If I practiced for a while, dealing with it as we had, it would soon be gone. I had to admit that I had never imagined it would be possible for me to hold a live poisonous snake in my hands without fear. Then I asked Carol about other wild animals.

She told me that during the planetary pollution and overpopulation crisis, many types of animal life had died off. However, the early Macro society had preserved as many species as it could. Now, most animal life had made a remarkable comeback from almost complete extinction, for man had finally ended his relentless destruction of them and their food chain. I was pleased to hear that even the great cats such as the leopard, tiger, and lion had survived.

"But what will you do if they become too numerous?" I asked.

"Oh," she said, "we control the total ecological balance of our planet, not by killing, but by maintaining a balance of nature so that no species overbreeds for very long."

"Speaking of overpopulation," I said, "you know, I'm really surprised that I haven't seen more people during our walks to the center and to the recreation areas. Why is this?"

"We don't need to crowd each other," Carol replied, "because we're not afraid of being alone. With telepathy we need never be alone, and we need never invade the mental or physical privacy of others without their consent.

Besides, you haven't seen much of our Delta-only the student Gamma area."

"That's true," I agreed, "although on my first visit I wandered for some time through your gardens and woods, yet Lea was the only person I saw."

"Don't forget," Carol reminded me, "each Delta has 100 square miles of living space devoted mostly to wooded parkland. Ten thousand people can live very uncrowded lives in our Deltas if they live them in a Macro fashion."

"Someday," I said, "I must walk all around the lake and see all the other Gamma buildings."

"Why don't we do it now?" Carol asked.

"Well," I answered, "if I remember correctly, the lake is five miles long and two miles wide, so from where we are now it would be a rather long walk-over fifteen miles -and I wanted to join Neal and Jean today."

"We can do both," Carol replied. "We'll just run most of the way using Macro contact energy."

"You mean," I asked, "every time we get tired we recall our last Macro contact and renew our energy supply while at the same time washing away our fatigue?"

"Well, sort of," she answered. "What we'll do is maintain a constant Macro contact memory which will allow us to use a little PK to run very lightly and fast. Imagine your body weighing only a few pounds and then imagine that the force of gravity is much less-only about one tenth its usual force."

At first all this seemed complicated and I had a lot of difficulty believing it was possible. I got off to a mighty funny-looking start, but after we got going I was able, through our telepathic contact, to see how Carol was using her mind. Then by the same telepathic bond that had finally enabled me to overcome my fear of the snake, I learned how to run as I had seen Lea run on my first visit to 2150.

For a person who has always loved running, this experience of almost flying through the air as we bounded along with the stride of a colossus interrupted with occasional leaps of pure delight that must have covered at least fifty feet was the ultimate in physical expression. Our speed varied as we passed such points of interest as the other Gamma buildings, for then we would slow our pace so that we could look around. I was seeing more people than ever before.

We wove our way around the Gamma buildings. First we ran along the lake shore admiring the lovely stretches of sandy beaches on which many of the handsome members of the Macro society were playing and swimming nude in the sunshine. They sent us telepathic greetings and welcomed me to 2150. Then we ran past the shrubbery and flower gardens through the parklands behind the Gammas until we came to large vegetable gardens that were maintained by each Gamma.

Still we saw relatively few people. Even when we passed the large Gamma buildings which I knew housed a thousand people there would only be a handful of people outside around them. It was only when we came to the large recreation areas, which seemed to be shared by two Gammas, that we saw more people. Even here there were no large crowds, hardly more than a hundred people in any one of the huge recreation areas. I was pleased that from a planet which had almost died from overcrowding, Macro man had truly reestablished a balanced population. And yet, ironically, micro man's ideal of the single-family house had been given up completely.

When we came to the administration building at the end of the lake I realized that I must have run at least six miles, yet I didn't feel at all tired-more exhilarated than anything else.

I appreciated the rows of tall trees surrounding this building. Then I saw, coming out of its central entrance, the smallest man I had yet encountered in 2150. He was no more than six feet tall, and as we approached him I noticed signs of aging. Rana had looked 45, but this man looked at least 55. As we stopped before him, Carol took his left hand and greeted him affectionately.

He then greeted me in this traditional manner saying, "Welcome to Delta 927. I'm Hugo, your Deltar."

I liked him immediately and was not surprised that the Delta had chosen him as their leader, for he had tremendous warmth and quiet strength: "Thank you," I said, "I can't tell you how happy I am to be here."

Carol told him of our journey around the Delta lake, then he answered my unspoken question about his age.

"I have had 197 years," he explained. "I was born in Brazil in 1953. Yes, I could look younger, but I grew up in a time when people aged and, since I shall soon evolate, I have permitted myself to age also."