By the Waters of Babylon

The waters of Babylon were the Tigris and the Euphrates, site of some of humankind's earliest civilizations. Here, in this quotation, they represent exile from the homeland of Israel. The river in our story is the Hudson, running past the ruined city of New York. The hero of the story, John, is the descendant of a tribe of people who, long before, had survived a nuclear holocaust. How long ago that happened is left unspecified, …

…to walk beside the young man. We hear John speak in the simple way we would expect of his limited experience. He has something of the poet in him, but all his comparisons are in keeping with the kind of life he has led. John should be easily understood by any teenager who dreams big dreams, who aches to do something different and impressive, aches for his or her life to somehow have special meaning.