"Kim Stanley Robinson - Sixty Days and Counting" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

where the shadows from the fire congregated the most. Carrying one upstairs, Anna
watched the shadows shift and flicker with her steps, and wondered if they would be
warm enough up there that night; the bedrooms felt colder than the inside of the
refrigerator had. She wondered briefly if a refrigerator would work to keep things
from freezing in a subzero house.
тАЬWe should maybe sleep on the couches down here,тАЭ she said when she was back
in the living room. тАЬDo we have enough firewood to keep a fire going all night?тАЭ
тАЬI think so,тАЭ Charlie said. тАЬIf the wood will burn.тАЭ
Last winter after the cold snap, there had been a period when firewood had been
deemed cheaper heat than oil or gas, and all the cured firewood had been quickly
bought and burned. This year green wood was almost all that was available, and it
burned very poorly, as Charlie was now finding out. He threw in a
paraffin-and-sawdust log from time to time, and used his massive wrought-iron fire
tongs to lift the heavy recalcitrant logs over the fake ones to dry them out and keep
things going.
тАЬRemind me to buy dry wood next time.тАЭ
Anna took her bowl back into the kitchen. Water was still running, but it wouldnтАЩt
for long. She filled her pots, and a couple of five-gallon plastic jugs they had in the
basement. These too would freeze eventually, unless she put them near the fire. They
needed a better blackout routine, she saw. She took them out to the living room and
saw the boys settling in. This must be how it had been, she thought, for generations
on end; everyone huddling together at night for warmth. Probably she would have to
work from home the next day, though her laptop battery was depleted. She wished
laptop batteries lasted longer.
тАЬRemind me to check the freezer in the morning. I want to see if things have started
to thaw.тАЭ
тАЬIf you open it, it will lose its cool.тАЭ
тАЬUnless the kitchen is colder than the freezer. IтАЩve been wondering about that.тАЭ
тАЬMaybe we should just leave the freezer door open then.тАЭ
тАЬMaybe we can get the fire going in it!тАЭ
They laughed at this, but Anna still felt uneasy.
They built a city on the coffee table using JoeтАЩs blocks, then read by candlelight.
Charlie and Nick hauled an old double mattress that they called the tigersтАЩ bed up
from the basement, and they laid it right before the fire, where Joe used it as a
trampoline which looked like it was going to slingshot him right into the feeble blaze.
When everything was arranged, Charlie read aloud some pages from The Once and
Future King, about what it was like to be a goose migrating over the Norwegian
SeaтАФa passage that had Anna and the boys entranced. Finally they put out the
candles, and fell asleepтАФ
Only to awaken all together, surprised and disoriented, when the power came back
on. It was 2 a.m., and beyond the reach of the smoldering gray coals the house was
very cold, but fully lit, and buzzing with the sounds of its various machines. Anna
and Charlie got up to turn the lights off. The boys were already asleep again by the
time they got back downstairs.
The next day, things were back to normal, more or less, though the air was still
smoky. Everyone wanted to tell stories about where they had been when the power
went off, and what had happened to them.
тАЬIt was actually kind of nice,тАЭ Charlie said the next night at dinner. тАЬA little
adventure.тАЭ
Anna had to agree, though she was still uneasy. тАЬIt wouldnтАЩt have been if the power