"Andre Norton - Long Night of Waiting" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

could not stay in this mixed up horrible world which was not the right one at all! Rick told her about the
words on the stones and how long it had been. First she called him a liar and said that was not true. So
after dark he had taken a flashlight and went back to show her the stone and the words.

She had been the one to cry then. But she did not for long. She got to asking what was going to happen
in the field, looking at the machines. When Rick told her, Lizzy had said quick and hot, no, they mustn't
do that, it was dangerousтАФa lot of others might go through. And they, those in the other world, didn't
want people who did bad things to spoil everything.

When Rick brought her back she was mad, not at him, but at everything else. She made him walk her
down to the place from which you could see the intercity thruway, with all the cars going whizz. Rick said
he was sure she was scared. She was shaking, and she held onto his hand so hard it hurt. But she made
herself watch. Then, when they came back, she said Matt and sheтАФthey had to go. And she offered to
take Alex, Lesley, and Rick with them. She said they couldn't want to go on living here.

That was the only time she talked much of what it was like there. Birds and flowers, no noise or cars
rushing about, nor bulldozers tearing the ground up, everything pretty. It was Lesley who had asked then:

"If it was all that wonderful, why did you want to come back?"

Then she was sorry she had asked because Lizzy's face looked like she was hurting inside when she
answered:
"There was Ma and Pa. Matt, he's little, he misses Ma bad at times. Those others, they got their own
way of life, and it ain't much like ours. So, we've kept a-tryin' to get back. I brought somethin'тАФjust for
Ma." She showed them two bags of big silvery leaves pinned together with long thorns. Inside each were
seeds, all mixed up big and little together.

"Things grow there," she nodded toward the field, "they grow strange-like. Faster than seeds hereabouts.
You put one of these," she ran her finger tip in among the seeds, shifting them back and forth, "in the
ground, and you can see it grow. Honest-Injun-cross-my-heart-an'-hope-to-die if that ain't so. Ma, she
hankers for flowers, loves 'em truly. So I brought her some. Only, Ma, she ain't here. Funny thingтАФthose
over there, they have a feelin' about these here flowers and plants. They tell you right out that as long as
they have these growin' 'round they're safe."

"Safe from what?" Rick wanted to know.

"I dunnoтАФsafe from somethin' as they think may change 'em. See, we ain't the onlyest ones gittin' through
to there. There's others, we've met a couple.

SusanтАФshe's older 'n me and she dresses funny, like one of the real old time ladies in a book picture.
And there's JimтАФhe spends most of his time off in the woods, don't see him much. Susan's real nice. She
took us to stay with her when we got there. But she's married to one of them, so we didn't feel
comfortable most of the time. Anyway they had some rulesтАФthey asked us right away did we have
anything made of iron. Iron is bad for them, they can't hold it, it burns them bad. And they told us right
out that if we stayed long we'd change. We ate their food and drank their drink stuffтАФ that's like cider
and it tastes good. That changes people from here. So after awhile anyone who comes through is like
them. Susan mostly is by now, I guess. When you're changed you don't want to come back."

"But you didn't change," Lesley pointed out. "You came back."