"Robert A. Heinlein - Farmer In The Sky" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

me, call Follow Up Service, Limited, in ChicagoтАФwe'll be somewhere in Canada. We'll be back
Thursday night. Goodbye.тАЭ That was the end of the recording.

Thursday nightтАФblast-off was Friday morning.

3. Space ShipBifrost
Dad called me from Mrs. Kenyon'sтАФI mean from Molly'sтАФapartment Thursday night. We were both
polite but uneasy. I said yes, I was all ready and I hoped they had had a nice time. He said they had and
would I come over and we would all leave from there in the morning.

I said I hadn't known what his plans were, so I had bought a ticket to Mojave port and had reserved a
room at Hotel Lancaster. What did he want me to do?

He thought about it and said, тАЬIt looks like you can take care of yourself, Bill.тАЭ

тАЬOf course I can.тАЭ

тАЬAll right. We'll see you at the port. Want to speak to Molly?тАЭ

тАЬUh, no, just tell her hello for me.тАЭ

тАЬThanks, I will.тАЭ He switched off.

I went to my room and got my kitтАФfifty-seven and fifty-nine hundredths pounds; I couldn't have added
a clipped frog's hair. My room was bare, except for my Scout uniform. I couldn't afford to take it, but I
hadn't thrown it away yet.

I picked it up, intending to take it to the incinerator, then stopped. At the physical exam I had been listed
at one hundred thirty-one and two tenths pounds mass in the clothes I would wear for blast off.

But I hadn't eaten much the last few days.

I stepped into the 'fresher and onto the scalesтАФone hundred twenty-nine and eight tenths. I picked up
the uniform and stepped back on the scalesтАФone hundred thirty-two and five tenths.

William, I said, you get no dinner, you get no breakfast, and you drink no water tomorrow morning. I
bundled up my uniform and took it along.

The apartment was stripped. As a surprise for the next tenant I left in the freezer the stuff I had meant to
eat for supper, then switched all the gadgets to zero except the freezer, and locked the door behind me.
It felt funny; Anne and George and I had lived there as far back as I could remember.

I went down to subsurface, across town, and caught the In-Coast tube for Mojave. Twenty minutes
later I was at Hotel Lancaster in the Mojave Desert.

I soon found out that the тАЬroomтАЭ I had reserved was a cot in the billiard room. I trotted down to find out
what had happened.

I showed the room clerk the 'stat that said I had a room coming to me. He looked at it and said, тАЬYoung
man, have you ever tried to bed down six thousand people at once?тАЭ