"Asimov, Isaac - Anniversary" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

Moore said wonderingly, "Mike SheaЧMike Shea, by all space."

They pounded hands together, laughing.

Brandon said, "He got in touch with me through the office. He
remembered I was with Atomic ProductsЧ"

"It's been years," said Moore. "Let's see, you were on Earth twelve
years agoЧ"

"He's never been here on an anniversary," said Brandon. "How
about that? He's retiring now. Getting out of space to a place he's
buying in Arizona. He came to say hello before he leftЧstopped off
at the city just for thatЧand I was sure he came for the anniversary.
'What anniversary?' says the old jerk."

Shea nodded, grinning. "He said you made a kind of celebration
out of it every year."

"You bet," said Brandon enthusiastically, "and this will be the first
one with all three of us here, the iirst real anniversary. It's twenty
years, Mike; twenty years since Warren scrambled over what was
left of the wreck and brought us down to Vesta."

Shea looked about. "Space ration, eh? That's old home week to
me. And Jabra. Oh, sure, I remember . . . twenty years. I never
give it a thought and now, ail of a sudden, it's yesterday. Remember
when we got back to Earth finally?"

"Do I!" said Brandon. "The parades, the speeches. Warren was
the only real hero of the occasion and we kept saying so, and they
kept paying no attention. Remember?"

"Oh, well," said Moore. "We were the first three men ever to
survive a spaceship crash. We were unusual and anything unusual is
worth a celebration. These things are irrational."

"Hey," said Shea, "any of you remember the songs they wrote?
That marching one? 'You can sing of routes through Space and the
weary maddened pace of theЧ'"

Brandon joined in with his clear tenor and even Moore added his
voice to the chorus so that the last line was loud enough to shake
the drapes. "On the wreck of the Silver Que-e-en," they roared out,
and ended laughing wildly.



Brandon said, "Let's open the Jabra for the first little sip. This one