She smiled. "No it's not. You can touch it. It's real."
"Will it be here after I die?"
"Who cares? Besides, if you can do all this, you can cure any sickness. Perhaps you can even cure old age and death." She plucked a blossom from an over-hanging bough and sniffed its fragrance. "You could keep this from fading and dying. You could probably do the same for us, so where's the problem?"
"Would you like to go away?" he said, puffing on a newly created cigarette. "Would you like to find a new planet, untouched by war? Would you like to start over?"
"Start over? You mean.... Later perhaps. Now I don't even want to go near the ship. It reminds me of the war."
They floated on a little way.
"Are you sure now that I'm real?" she asked.
"If you want me to be honest, no," he replied. "But I want very much to believe it."
"Then listen to me," she said, leaning toward him. "I'm real." She slipped her arms around his neck. "I've always been real. I always will be real. You want proof? Well, I know I'm real. So do you. What more can you ask?"
He stared at her for a long moment, felt her warm arms around his neck, listened to her breathing. He could smell the fragrance of her skin and hair, the unique essence of an individual.