"James Alan Gardner - The Ray-Gun A Love Story" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gardner James Alan)

The ray-gun fell at night during a blizzard. Traveling thousands of
miles an hour, the ray-gun plunged deep into snow-covered woods. The
snow melted so quickly that it burst into steam.

The blizzard continued, unaffected. Some things canтАЩt be harmed,
even by ray-guns.

Unthinking snowflakes drifted down. If they touched the ray-gunтАЩs
surface they vaporized, stealing heat from the weapon. Heat also radiated
outward, melting snow nearby on the ground. Melt-water flowed into the
shallow crater made by the ray-gunтАЩs impact. Water and snow cooled the
weapon until all excess temperature had dissipated. A million more
snowflakes heaped over the crater, hiding the ray-gun till spring.

****

In March, the gun was found by a boy named Jack. He was fourteen
years old and walking through the woods after school. He walked slowly,
brooding about his lack of popularity. Jack despised popular students and
had no interest in anything they did. Even so, he envied them. They didnтАЩt
appear to be lonely.

Jack wished he had a girlfriend. He wished he were important. He
wished he knew what to do with his life. Instead, he walked alone in the
woods on the edge of town.

The woods were not wild or isolated. They were crisscrossed with
trails made by children playing hide-and-seek. But in spring, the trails were
muddy; most people stayed away. Jack soon worried more about how to
avoid shoe-sucking mud than about the unfairness of the world. He took
wide detours around mucky patches, thrashing through brush that was crisp
from winter.

Stalks broke as he passed. Burrs stuck to his jacket. He got farther
and farther from the usual paths, hoping heтАЩd find a way out by blundering
forward rather than swallowing his pride and retreating.

In this way, Jack reached the spot where the ray-gun had landed. He
saw the crater it had made. He found the ray-gun itself.

The gun seized JackтАЩs attention, but he didnтАЩt know what it was. Its
design was too alien to be recognized as a weapon. Its metal was
blackened but not black, as if it had once been another color but had
finished that phase of its existence. Its pistol-butt was bulbous, the size of a
tennis ball. Its barrel, as long as JackтАЩs hand, was straight but its surface
had dozens of nubs like a briarwood cane. The gunтАЩs trigger was a
protruding blister you squeezed till it popped. A hard metal cap could slide
over the blister to prevent the gun from firing accidentally, but the safety
was off; it had been off for centuries, ever since the fight on the starship.