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

УStone, this is Hollis. Where are you?Ф

УI donТt know. How can I? Which way is up? IТm falling. Good God, IТm falling.Ф

They fell. They fell as pebbles fall down wells. They were scattered as jackstones are scattered from a gigantic throw. And now instead of men there were only voicesЧall kinds of voices, disembodied and impassioned, in varying degrees of tenor and resignation.

УWeТre going away from each other.Ф

This was true. Hollis, swinging head over heels, knew this was true. He knew it with a vague acceptance. They were parting to go their separate ways, and nothing could bring them back. They were wearing their sealed-tight space suits with the glass tubes over their pale faces, but they hadnТt had time to lock on their force units. With them they could be small lifeboats in space, saving themselves, saving others, collecting together, finding each other until they were an island of men with some plan. But without the force units snapped to their shoulders they were meteors, senseless, each going to a separate and irrevocable fate.

A period of perhaps ten minutes elapsed while the first terror died and a metallic calm took its place. Space began to weave its strange voices in and out, on a great dark loom, crossing, recrossing, making a final pattern.

УStone to Hollis. How long can we talk by phone?Ф

УIt depends on how fast youТre going your way and IТm going mine.

УAn hour, I make it.Ф

УThat should do it,Ф said Hollis, abstracted and quiet.

УWhat happened?Ф said Hollis a minute later.

УThe rocket blew up, thatТs all. Rockets do blow up.Ф

СWhich way are you going?Ф

УIt looks like IТll hit the moon.Ф

УItТs Earth for me. Back to old Mother Earth at ten thousand miles per hour. IТll burn like a match.Ф Hollis thought of it with a queer abstraction of mind. He seemed to be removed from his body, watching it fall down and down through space, as objective as he had been in regard to the first falling snowflakes of a winter season long gone.



The others were silent, thinking of the destiny that had brought them to this, falling, falling, and nothing they could do to change it. Even the captain was quiet for there was no command or plan he knew that could put things back together again.

УOh, itТs a long way down. Oh, itТs a long way down, a long, long, long way down,Ф said a voice. УI donТt want to die, I donТt want to die, itТs a long way down.Ф

"Who's that?Ф

УI donТt know.Ф

УStimson, I think. Stimson, is that you?Ф

УItТs a long, long way and I donТt like it. Oh, God, I donТt like it.Ф

УStimson, this is Hollis. Stimson, you hear me?Ф

A pause while they fell separate from one another.

УStimson?Ф