"Judith Merril - Homecalling" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merril Judith)

her own. She didn't know for sure whether they would be needed on this planet, but
one place they'd been called Carteld, you had to wear a mask all the time because
there wasn't enough oxygen in the air.
She couldn't remember the name of this planet. They'd never been here before,
she knew that much; but this must be the one they were coming to, or Daddy
wouldn't have started to go down, and everything wouldn't have happened.
That meant probably, at least the air wasn't poisonous. They had space-suits and
helmets on the ship, and Dee had space-suit drill every week; but she was pretty sure
she didn't need anything
more than the mask here. And there wasn't time for space-suits anyhow.
The lock was all the way open. Deborah went to the door and recoiled before the
blast of heat; it was burning outside. Now she had to get away, quick.
She picked up Petey, looked around at all the toys, and at the closet where her
clothes were; at the blackboard, the projector, and the tumbled pile of fruit and
crackers on the floor. She bent down and stuffed the pockets of her jumper with the
crumbly crackers and smashed sticky fruit. Then she looked around again, and felt
the heat coming through the door, and had to leave everything else behind.

She climbed out, and there were flames in the back. She ran, with Petey in her
arms, though she'd been told never to do that. She ran straight away from the flames,
and kept going as long as she could; it was hard work, because her feet sank into the
spongy soil at every step. And it was still hot, even when she got away from the
rocket. She kept running until she was too tired, and began to stumble, then she
slowed down and walkedтАФuntil Petey began to be too heavy, and she couldn't carry
him any more. She stopped, and put him down on the ground and looked him over.
He was all right, only he was wetтАФvery wetтАФand the whole front of her jumper was
wet too, from him.
Deborah scowled, and the baby began to cry. She couldn't stand that, so she
smiled and tried playing games with him. Petey wasn't very good at games yet, but
he always laughed and stayed happy if she played with him. Sometimes she thought
he liked her better than anybody else, even Mommy. He acted that way. Maybe it
was because she was closer to his sizeтАФa medium size giant in a world full of
giant-giants; that 's how people would look to Petey.
When he was happy again, she gave him half a cracker from her pocket, and a
piece of fruit for his other hand. He tumbled over backwards, and lay down, right on
the muddy ground, smearing the food all over his face and looking sleepy.
Sooner or later, Dee knew, she was going to have to turn around and look back,
meanwhile, she sat on the ground, crosslegged,watching Peter fall asleep. She
thought about her ancestors, who were pioneers on Pluto, and her father and how
brave he was. She thought once, very quickly, about her mother, who was may-be
all burned up now.
She had to be brave nowтАФas brave and strong as she knew, in her own private
self, she really was. Not silly-brave the way grown-ups expected you to be, about
things like cuts and antiseptics, but deep-down important brave. She was an intrepid
explorer on an alien planet, exposed to unknown dangers and trials, with a help-less
infant under her wing to protect. She turned around and looked back.

Her own footsteps faced her, curving away out of sight between two tall distant
trees. She looked harder in the direction they pointed to, if the fire was still burning,
she ought to be able to see it. The trees were far enough apart, and the ground was