"Robert F. Young - The Grownup People's Feet" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

" 'And dr—' "
" 'And dress by yellow candlelight.' "
" 'In summer, quite the other way—' "
" 'I have to go to bed by day!' "
"Why that's wonderful, darling. 'I have—' "
" 'I have to go to bed and see the—' "
" 'birds still hopping—' "
" 'The birds still hopping on the tree—' "
" 'Or hear the—' "
" 'Or hear the grown-up people's feet—' "
" 'Still going—' "
" 'Still going past me in the street—' "

***

As I say, there are things we remember because we can't forget them and there are things we
remember because we don't want to forget them, and there are a few very special things that possess
both qualities.
Laurie is a big girl now, but she does not know how to read. There would be little point in her
knowing how since there is nothing to read. But once upon a time she could read a little bit, though of
course she has forgotten how by now and perhaps it is just as well. There is no need for the printed word
in the simple village we have built here in the hills, far from the radioactive shore of the lake; there is need
for nothing here except strong backs that will not tire after long hours in the fields.
The long winter nights are empty, of course, and at first thought it might seem that books would help
to fill them; but the books would be old books and they would only fill the nights with the past, and the
past is better the way it is, half-forgotten, a way of life we are not quite sure we experienced at
all—except for those little things we keep remembering, sitting before the hearth, the wind howling in the
bitter darkness outside, shrieking in the distances as it scatters the ashes of cremated cities over the
barren land.