"H. Beam Piper - Crossroads of Destiny" - читать интересную книгу автора (Piper H Beam)

happened differently. We dramatize the event up to that point just as it really happened, and then a
commentary-voice comes on and announces that this is the Crossroads of Destiny; this is where history
could have been completely changed. Then he gives a resum├й of what really did happen, and then he
says, 'ButтАФsuppose so and so had done this and that, instead of such and such.' Then we pick up the
dramatization at that point, only we show it the way it might have happened. Like this thing about
Columbus; we'll show how it could have happened, and end with Columbus wading ashore with his
sword in one hand and a flag in the other, just like the painting, only it'll be the English flag, and Columbus
will shout: 'I take possession of this new land in the name of His Majesty, Henry the Seventh of
England!'" He brandished his drink, to the visible consternation of the elderly man beside him. "And then,
the sailors all sing God Save the King."

"Which wasn't written till about 1745," I couldn't help mentioning.

"Huh?" The plump man looked startled. "Are you sure?" Then he decided that I was, and shrugged.
"Well, they can all shout, 'God Save King Henry!' or 'St. George for England!' or something. Then, at the
end, we introduce the program guest, some history expert, a real name, and he tells how he thinks history
would have been changed if it had happened this way."

The conservatively dressed gentleman beside him wanted to know how long he expected to keep the
show running.

"The crossroads will give out before long," he added.

"The sponsor'll give out first," I said. "History is just one damn crossroads after another." I mentioned, in
passing, that I taught the subject. "Why, since the beginning of this century, we've had enough of them to
keep the show running for a year."

"We have about twenty already written and ready to produce," the plump man said comfortably, "and
ideas for twice as many that the planning staff is working on now."

The elderly man accepted that and took another cautious sip of wine.

"What I wonder, though, is whether you can really say that history can be changed."

"Well, of courseтАФ" The television man was taken aback; one always seems to be when a basic
assumption is questioned. "Of course, we only know what really did happen, but it stands to reason if
something had happened differently, the results would have been different, doesn't it?"
"But it seems to me that everything would work out the same in the long run. There'd be some differences
at the time, but over the years wouldn't they all cancel out?"

"Non, non, Monsieur!" the man with the book, who had been outside the conversation until now, told
him earnestly. "Make no mistake; 'istoree can be shange'!"

I looked at him curiously. The accent sounded French, but it wasn't quite right. He was some kind of a
foreigner, though; I'd swear that he never bought the clothes he was wearing in this country. The way the
suit fitted, and the cut of it, and the shirt-collar, and the necktie. The book he was reading was
Langmuir's Social History of the American PeopleтАФnot one of my favorites, a bit too much on the
doctrinaire side, but what a bookshop clerk would give a foreigner looking for something to explain
America.