"Ursula K. Leguin - The Flyers Of Gy - An Interplanetary Tale" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

to hold my attention any more. I used to like going to the theater, but I
couldn't do that, I still wasn't strong enough. And places like theaters, they
don't have room for people with unbound wings, you take up too much space, you
cause a fuss. I'd been good at mathematics in school, but I couldn't fix my
attention on the problems any more. They didn't seem to matter. So I had
nothing to do but the exercises the flyer taught me. And I did them. All the
time.

"The exercises helped. There really wasn't enough room even in our sitting
room, I never could do a vertical stretch fully, but I did what I could. I
felt better, I got stronger. I finally began to feel like my wings were mine.
Were part of me. Or I was part of them.

"Then one day I couldn't stand being inside any more. Thirteen months I'd been
inside, in those three little rooms, most of them just in the one room,
thirteen months! Mama was out at work. I went downstairs. I walked the first
ten steps down and then I lifted my wings. Even though the staircase was way
too narrow, I could lift them some, and I stepped off and floated down the
last six steps. Well, sort of. I hit pretty hard at the bottom, and my knees
buckled, but I didn't really fall. It wasn't flying, but it wasn't quite
falling.

"I went outside. The air was wonderful. I felt like I hadn't had any air for a
year. Actually, I felt like I'd never known what air was in my whole life.
Even in that narrow little street, with the houses hanging over it, there was
wind, there was the sky, not a ceiling. The sky overhead. The air. I started
walking. I hadn't planned anything. I wanted to get out of the lanes and
alleys, to somewhere open, a big plaza or square or park, anything open to the
sky. I saw people staring at me but I didn't much care. I'd stared at people
with wings, when I didn't have them. Not meaning anything, just curious. Wings
aren't all that common. I used to wonder a little about what it felt like to
have them, you know. Just ignorance. So I didn't care if people looked at me
now. I was too eager to get out from under the roofs. My legs were weak and
shaky but they kept going, and sometimes, where the street wasn't crowded with
people, I'd lift my wings a little, loft them, get a feel of the air under the
feathers, and for a little while I'd be lighter on my feet.

"So I got to the Fruit Market. The market had shut down, it was evening, the
booths were all shoved back, so there was a big space in the middle,
cobblestones. I stood there under the Assay Office for a while doing
exercises, lifts and stretches—I could do a vertical all the way for the first
time, and it felt wonderful. Then I began to trot a little as I lofted, and my
feet would get off the ground for a moment, and so I couldn't resist, I
couldn't help it, I began to run and to loft my wings, and then beat down, and
loft again, and I was up! But there was the Weights and Measures Building
right in front of me, this grey stone facade right in my face, and I actually
had to fend off, push myself away from it with my hands, and drop down to the
pavement. But I turned around and there I had the full run ahead of me, clear
across the marketplace to the Assay Office. And I ran, and I took off.