"Suzette Haden Elgin - What The EPA Don't Know Won't Hurt Them" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elgin Suzette Haden)

haven
for snakes! Children die of snakebite, too, you know!'
He smiled at her politely. "Yes, ma'am" he said. He did not tell her
that
you had to let vines and brush grow up around the junk, and warn the
children away from it. You had no choice about that. Because somebody
looking down from high enough up and seeing the grid of junk forming on
Earth might very well have recognized it for what it was . . . would
certainly have recognized it for a made thing, with a purpose. And that
might have been more dangerous than snakes and lockjaw put together.
"Thank you, Miz Bridges he said instead. "Appreciate your trouble."
Not until she was safely inside, and her door closed, did he let out a
whoop of joy and charge into the house bellowing, "Granny, you are
never
going to BELIEVE what I've got here!"

The headlines the next day were no comfort to Hannah Bridges, who kept
saying, "But I was just talking to one of them, only yesterday? It's
not
possible!"
Possible or not, there it was. "Twelve Arkansas families disappear from
the face of the Earth overnight!" the newspapers screamed, using the
biggest type they had available. "FBI estimates a thousand gone without
a
trace! Authorities baffled!" "Administration suspects terrorists!"
They were gone, and much of their belongings with them. All their
houses
and outbuildings were swept and tidy and still. On every kitchen table
lay
a neat stack of envelopes with bills inside, and checks or cash in each
one to cover the obligation. Even the junk piled in the yards and
ditches
and ravines was tidy; the vegetation around it seemed to have all been
burned away by the kind of fire that burns so hot it leaves not even
ashes
behind, though not a single fire had been reported. The junk itself
looking burnished and shiny and sparkling, with no sign of the rust and
filth that had been there the day before. But nobody had seen the
Ozarkers
leaving the hills. Nobody had seen them drive away, or get on a bus, or
 board a plane. Nobody'd sold them gas; nobody'd sold them tickets. Not
one
of them had given notices at the places where they worked, or offered
any
other warning. They were just GONE. As if they'd never been there at
all.

In the belly of The Ship, grown-ups were rocking children who were
little
enough to be crying about things left behind, now that the distracting