"No. Tom," Willie said. "Leave me here. I crawled all night to get here. I want to die in this pool."
"In the water?" Tom said in surprise.
"Yes, in the water. Don't you understand? I thought you would." He stared up at the white tracing of the clouds in the sky.
Tom waited, silently. He knelt there, the sun burning hot on his back.
"I wanted to stay," Willie said. "I had to stay. Didn't you feel anything about this planet, Tom?"
Tom thought a moment. "I did feel a little," he admitted. "On the way over here. Like it would be a nice place to live."
"That's it," Willie smiled. "Don't you see. Here was this planet, ripe for life, but without life. Then the seeds of the ferns got blown off Earth and drifted here. But it needed more, it needed animal life to complete the cycle.
"Then we got 'blown off Earth.' Bart for the glory, Pudge for the ride, you for the excitement, and me—me—because I had to, I guess. Because I couldn't stand it back there. Seeds, all four of us, and not knowing it. That's why we had to land. That's why one of us had to stay and I guess it was just me. Now the rest of you can go back to Earth."
Willie coughed, much longer this time. Then he lay back exhausted. "Tom," he whispered, "look at the edge of my camp. In the ferns."