"Bradbury, Ray - The Illustrated Man" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bradbury Ray)

The lions were standing on the edge of the clearing watching the two men.

УNow IТm feeling persecuted,Ф said McClean. УLetТs get out of here. I never have cared for these damned rooms. Make me nervous.Ф

УThe lions look real, donТt they?Ф said George Hadley. I donТt suppose thereТs any wayЧУ

УWhat?Ф

УЧthat they could become real?Ф

УNot that I know.Ф

УSome flaw in the machinery, a tampering or something?Ф

УNo.Ф

They went to the door.

УI donТt imagine the room will like being turned off,Ф said the father.

УNothing ever likes to dieЧeven a room.Ф

УI wonder if it hates me for wanting to switch it off?Ф

УParanoia is thick around here today,Ф said David McClean. УYou can follow it like a spoor. Hello.Ф He bent and picked up a bloody scarf. УThis yours?Ф

УNo.Ф George HadleyТs face was rigid. УIt belongs to Lydia.Ф

They went to the fuse box together and threw the switch that killed the nursery.

The two children were in hysterics. They screamed and pranced and threw things. They yelled and sobbed and swore and jumped at the furniture.

УYou canТt do that to the nursery, you canТt!Ф

УNow, children.Ф

The children flung themselves onto a couch, weeping.

УGeorge,Ф said Lydia Hadley, Уturn on the nursery, just for a few moments. You canТt be so abrupt.Ф

УNo.Ф

УYou canТt be so cruel . . .Ф

УLydia, itТs off, and it stays off. And the whole damn house dies as of here and now. The more I see of the mess weТve put ourselves in, the more it sickens me. WeТve been contemplating our mechanical, electronic navels for too long. My God, how we need a breath of honest air!Ф

And he marched about the house turning off the voice clocks, the stoves, the heaters, the shoe shiners, the shoe lacers, the body scrubbers and swabbers and massagers, and every other machine be could put his hand to.

The house was full of dead bodies, it seemed. It felt like a mechanical cemetery. So silent. None of the humming hidden energy of machines waiting to function at the tap of a button.