"David Garnett - Off The Track" - читать интересную книгу автора (Garnett David)

In the centre was a simple slab of white marble, with carved lettering
highlighted in black.

In Memory of the One Million

When the casualty list reached that high, official figures were no longer
issued. Some said the total was one and a half million American dead,
others two million.
Two million dead in Vietnam, but that was nothing compared to the number
who had died when the war suddenly reached the U.S.A. There was no
memorial to them, and the death toll was even more speculative. Perhaps
thirty million on the day the missiles landed, perhaps twice as many in
the years that followed. And there must have been at least as many
fatalities in the Soviet Union.
"Why did they go when they knew they'd be killed?" asked Angela.
"Orders. It was their duty."
"But it was all so stupid. What were they fighting for? What were they
dying for? Why didn't anyone protest, try to stop the war?"
Michael didn't really know what she meant.
"They did try to stop the war," he said. "They dropped nuclear bombs on
Hanoi."
"And look what happened! They were warned not to, but they went ahead. The
whole world could have been destroyed. A lot of it was. And for what? For
what?"
She turned towards Michael, and there were tears in her eyes.
"Let's get out of here," he told her. "Are you alright to drive?"
"Yes." Angela nodded. "It's just...just..."
She glanced at the memorial again, shook her head, then drove off.
"What are you going to do with that stuff?" he asked, hoping to change the
subject. "Give it to someone you don't like?"
"What?"
"The stuff you got from Jesse G. Presley."
"How do you know his name?"
Michael was still holding the record, and he showed Angela the name
written on the cover.
"I'm going to keep it all," Angela said. "But what are you going to do
with that?"
"Nothing. What can we do with it? Do we know anyone with a gramophone?" He
glanced at the title again. "Rock around the Clock."
"What does that mean?"
"Who knows? Who cares?"
Michael turned and threw the record onto the back seat, watching the town
recede in the distance. He wished they had stayed on the right road,
wished they hadn't stopped. Everything had been fine until then; but now
it was almost as if there was something missing, and he had no idea what
it could have been.
In silence, they drove on down the road.

Completely off the Track
an afterword by David Garnett