"Brooks, Terry - Landover 01 - Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brooks Terry)

he would be leaving a lot behind him if he went and if this
Kingdom of Landover proved to be real, but most of it would
be in the nature of material possessions and creature com-
forts, and those really didn't matter to him anymore. Cars
and trains and airplanes, refrigerators and stoves and dish-
washers, indoor toilets and electric shaversЧall the modern
things that were left behind to go fishing in Canada. Except

Terry Brooks 21

that on a fishing trip, such things were left behind for only
a few weeks. That wouldn't be the case here. This would be
for much longer than a few weeks, and it wouldn't be like
any camping trip he had ever heard aboutЧor at least he
didn't think it would.

What would it be like, he wondered suddenly? What would
it be like in this fairy-tale kingdom called LandoverЧthis
kingdom that had somehow come to be offered for sale in a
department store catalogue? Would it be like the land of Oz
with Munchkins and witches and a tin man who talked?
Would there be a yellow brick road to follow?

He resisted a sudden urge to pack up his suitcase and get
the hell out of New York before going any further with the
whole business. When you got right down to it, what mat-
tered was not the sanity of his inquiry or the future into which
he might choose to step. What mattered was the conscious
decision to make some change in his life and in making that
change to find something that would offer him the purpose
of being that he had lost. When you held your ground, the
old saying went, you stopped moving. When you stopped
moving, everything about you would eventually pass you by.

He sighed. Trouble was, those old bromides always
sounded truer than they were.

The variety show gave way to the late news, weather, and
sports. Ben undressed and put on pajamas (did people wear
pajamas in Landover?), brushed his teeth (did people brush
their teeth in Landover?), shut off the television, and went
to bed.

He was awake early the next morning, having slept poorly
as he always did the first night away from home on a trip.
He showered, shaved, dressed in a dark blue business suit,
caught the elevator to the lobby where he purchased an early
edition of the Times, and went into Oscar's for breakfast.

By nine o'clock, he was on his way to Rosen's.