"Exile From Space" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merril Judith)

inevitable sequence of events, of faces and features and events just
not-quite-remembered and not-quite-known.
I was born in this place, but it was not my home. Its people were not mine; its
ways were not mine. All I knew of it was what I had been told, and what I had
seen for myself these last weeks of preparation, on the television screen. And
the dream-feeling was intensified, at first, by the fact that I did not know why
I was there. I knew it had been planned this way, and I had been told it was
necessary to complete my education. Certainly I was aware of the great effort
that had been made to make the trip possible. But I did not yet understand just
why.
Perhaps it was just that I had heard and watched and thought and dreamed too
much about this place, and now I was actually there, the reality was Ч not so
much a disappointment as Ч just sort of unreal. Different from what I knew when
I didn't know.
The road unwound in a spreading spiral down the mountainside. Each time I came
round, I could see the city below, closer and larger, and less distinct. From
the top, with the sunlight sparkling on it, it had been a clean and gleaming
pattern of human civilization. Halfway down, the symmetry was lost, and the
smudge and smoke began to show.
Halfway down, too, I began to pass places of business: restaurants and gas
stations and handicraft shops. I wanted to stop. For half an hour now I had been
out on my own, and I still hadn't seen any of the people, except the three who
had passed me behind the wheels of their cars, going up the road. One of the
shops had a big sign on it, "COME IN AND LOOK AROUND." But I kept going. One
thing I understood was that it was absolutely necessary to have money, and that
I must stop nowhere, and attempt nothing, till after I had gotten some.
Farther down, the houses began coming closer together, and then the road stopped
winding around, and became almost straight. By that time, I was used to the car,
and didn't have to think about it much, and for a little while I really enjoyed
myself. I could see into the houses sometimes, through the windows, and at one,
a woman was opening the door, coming out with a broom in her hand. There were
children playing in the yards. There were cars of all kinds parked around the
houses, and I saw dogs and a couple of horses, and once a whole flock of
chickens.
But just where it was beginning to get really interesting, when I was coming
into the little town before the city, I had to stop watching it all, because
there were too many other people driving. That was when I began to understand
all the fuss about licenses and tests and traffic regulations. Watching it on
television, it wasn't anything like being in the middle of it!
Of course, what I ran into there was really nothing; I found that out when I got
into the city itself. But just at first, it seemed pretty bad. And I still don't
understand it. These people are pretty bright mechanically. You'd think anybody
who could build an automobile Ч let alone an atom bomb Чcould drive one easily
enough. Especially with a lifetime to learn in. Maybe they just like to live
dangerously ...
It was a good thing, though, that I'd already started watching out for what the
other drivers were doing when I hit my first red light. That was something I'd
overlooked entirely, watching street scenes on the screen, and I guess they'd
never noticed either. They must have taken it for granted, the way I did, that
people stopped their cars out of courtesy from time to time to let the other go