Grace playing “Sisyphus” with the pebbles during recess in his dome where he rolls them in their balls up the hill and then lets go so they roll all the way back down to the bottom before he rolls the next pebble back up the hill.
The pebbles love it, it’s like going sledding given how cold the dome is, but Rocky wants to know why Grace calls it Sisyphus and not sledding.
So Grace explains the myth and the punishment. Sisyphus still thinks he’ll be able to get the boulder to the top and that he’ll still outwit the Gods one final time. It’s only his hubris that is grander than his cleverness and frustration in believing he is capable of completing an impossible task. Trapped forever believing he will be successful in pushing his boulder up the hill.
Rocky watches as Grace, years after arriving on Erid, finally having regained some muscle mass, gently pushes another xenonite ball up the gentle sandy slope of their beach. Rocky can hear the laughing tones of the pebble urging teacher-Grace to push them higher because they want to roll further than student-Ruby. Rocky can hear Graces smile and thinks, one must imagine Sisyphus happy.
