"Ellen Gilchrist - Black Winter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gilchrist Ellen)

тАЬBecause even a nuclear war can't push the earth off its axis. It will get
colder and colder in this hemisphere. If life continues it will be near the
equator. I want to see some children before I die.тАЭ
We have decided to go with Mort. We will pull the motorcycle behind
the car on a trailer for the canoe. We will drive as far as we can. Then we
will throw away everything but books and the needle and food and walk.
Anything is better than staying here waiting for the chickens to start
keeling over.
We will leave in ten days. I am starting to abandon things, our map on
the wall, our calendar of days, our shadow marks outside the cave. I don't
know what to do about the horse. The leaves on the trees are growing
sparse. Vegetation is looking more like something in Alaska than Arkansas
in late summer. And it is cold.
The more I think about the equator the better I like the idea. We have
the guns if we need them. I might go out and shoot one one day soon. Just
to make sure I know how. We have three rifles and seven handguns. We
will only be able to keep this arsenal as long as we find gasoline. Mort says
we will siphon it from abandoned cars or get it from farm supplies. He
says all farms have tanks of gasoline and we will find some in Texas. There
is a town called Appleton a few miles from here. I want to drive through
that way and buy some apples if they have any left. It was just a tiny little
town with orchards all around it. Tannin says he doesn't want to see
orchards. He says there is a chance they will look like late Van Gogh and
scare us all to death.
After we go through Texas we will come to the Atlantic Ocean. No
matter what has happened the ocean will look like life and peace and
purity. All my life I have loved the ocean. And all bodies of water. I want to
dress in white for this journey. If I had a long white blanket I would make
a pilgrim's robe of it. This is a pilgrimage, I guess.
October 30, 1996: Six Tibetan monks are here. They came walking
down the path at noon yesterday, walking toward us as if they knew where
they were going. They have been in Fayetteville and brought us news from
there. They had gone there in late February to put on an exhibition of
temple dances. It was part of a one hundred and ten city show to raise
money for their new monastery in India. They are from Drepung
Monastery in Lhasa which was destroyed in 1959 by the Chinese
Communists. Their leader is Gangkar Tulku, recognized from childhood as
the reincarnation of a high lama from Eastern Tibet. Gangkar speaks
English, as does his second in command, Bhagang Tulku, also a high
reincarnate lama. The others were all born in India after 1959.
 Tannin and I were not surprised to see them. Lamas have come to
Fayetteville before. There are several psychiatrists there who visit back
and forth in India and Tibet. One of them had prayer flags flying in his
yard and I saw them every day when I would ride my bike to the park in
nice weather.
As soon as we saw them we went down the path to greet them. They
were still wearing their red and saffron robes and sandals although they
were also wearing large woolen shawls and warm hats and gloves. тАЬHow
did you find us?тАЭ Tannin asked.
тАЬWe asked where there were caves. We asked a geologist at the