The other Huddler standing almost directly in front of Ham, maybe two paces away, said “We’re hungry. Give us food.”
This caught Ham completely by surprise. After all, there was food all around – hanging from trees, growing in the ground. In fact, not ten paces from where they stood was an apple tree, with ripe apples hanging.
Ham said “There are apples on that tree right there.”
“We don’t know how to get apples. Give us food.” said the Huddler who was, apparently, the “leader” of this group.
“You just pick them,” said Ham.
“We’re hungry. Give us food.” And the leader and the other Huddlers took a small, shuffling step forward.
For the first time in quite a while, Ham began to feel afraid. Why couldn’t these Huddlers feed themselves?
“Ham?” asked June. “How did you learn about apples and trees?” in a small, frightened voice.
Ham thought. He remembered his life in his village of Dusk. There was one person there who was an apple gatherer, and another who was a water carrier, and another who was a potato grower. In fact, before he decided to leave Dusk, Ham never thought about apple trees and picking apples!
Ham realized he had a choice at this moment. He could deal with the other Huddlers trying to take their food – for that’s what it felt like right then and there – or he could try to teach them how to feed themselves. And he wondered how they had managed to feed themselves thus far, if they didn’t know how to pick apples from a tree right in front of them.
Ham looked at Martin and Walt and June and said “Let’s feed them.”
