"Brad Ferguson - The World Next Door" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ferguson Brad)

on the road ever since.
 Elvis says he walked most of the way here, taking his sweet time; he and
his backup men only rarely find a ride. Sometimes they settle in a place for
months; right now, they're going to Montpelier to see how things are
there. (I told him there's been no news from that part of New England for
years.)
Elvis says he no longer bothers to go near big cities. He says the cities
they didn't get with the bombers have been deserted тАФ no food supply, no
law and order, and loads of disease and misery did the job. We knew New
York was bombed, and Boston and Washington and Cleveland, too, but we
weren't sure about Columbus, Chicago, Gary, Indianapolis and about
twenty others Elvis mentioned. All gone.
Where the hell was the Air Force that October? For Christ's sake!
Elvis says he thinks the population is headed back up again, but he
admits that it might just be wishful thinking on his part. Elvis also says he
met the President at Mount Thunder a couple of years ago, and he looked
all right тАФ but gray and lined, not nearly the young man we remember,
and he's sick to boot ... something to do with his kidneys. He never did get
married again, either, although Elvis understands that the President still
takes his pleasures with any of the couple of hundred women who live in
the mountain's government complex, which is no less than I'd expect from
a scoundrel like him.
October 22
Today was the anniversary. We all stood up at the end of Elvis'
performance and sang the Banner, him leading us along on his guitar.
Most of us cried a little. The mayor made a speech, said an Our Father
and raised the anniversary flag his wife made back in '78. The flag looks
odd like that, the red and blue parts replaced by black, but it's
appropriate. After the Pledge, the mayor hauled the flag down for another
year.
Elvis did a bunch of his old songs and also some that his drummer
wrote. His drummer's really quite a songwriter. One was a happy thing
called "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" тАФ the lyrics weren't much, but the
tune was good and the whole thing made us laugh, which we needed тАФ
and the other was one that made me get all teary. Elvis called it "Let It
Be." That man can sing a little, all right.
I asked the drummer afterwards where he'd gotten the songs. He
shrugged and said he'd just dreamed 'em, woke up and wrote 'em down.
He says he's been dreaming recently that he's an executive with some big
record company in New York. Big office, too, with air conditioning. I
remember air conditioning.
Elvis was interested that I've been keeping a journal of our times here,
and I've let him read some of it. He says that while he hasn't been having
any dreams at all, he's interested in ours.
October 23
Elvis gave his last performance here tonight, finishing with a song
called "The World Next Door." He says he wrote it himself just this
morning. It's about the world we could have had without the war. He says
he was inspired to do it by all the dream entries in this journal of mine.
I'm proud of that, inspiring a song and all.