and gerald watched , fascinated , as each with one last forward totter tumbled into space , into slow and diminishing somersaults , tumbled from toddler , to baby , to fetus , to nothing more than a suggestion of a life , to not really nothing , but its next of kin , and before they could reached the ground , miles below , the line had become wind , rising into the dark mars sky , a light wisp on its way back to earth .