"Spider Robinson - Too Soon We Grow Old" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

stipulated," he said carefully.
She knew, somehow, that he would not lie, and tried to relax. It did not entirely
work. I've achieved what I set out to, she thought, but there's a catch of some kind
somewhere. Now how do I know that? Then she thought, More important, how did
he know that?
"Who are you?" she asked.
He was perceptive enough to guess which question she had asked with those
words. "I am Caleb," he said. "You've evidently guessed that I'm to be your
Orientator."
"I'm fairly good at anticipating the obvious," she said proudly. "It was inevitable
that someone would have to fill me in on current conventions, show me how to
recognize the ladies' room and so forth."
He laughed aloud. "I'm afraid that by 'anticipating the obvious,' you mean
straight-line extrapolation of what you were already accustomed to. That's going to
cause you problems."
"Explain," she said, wondering if she should take offense at his laughter.
"Well, for a start, I can't show you how to find a ladies' room."
"Eh?"
"I can show you how to find a public toilet."
She registered confusion.
He smiled tolerantly. "Come nowтАФyou're obviously quite intelligent. What does
your term imply that mine does not?"
She thought a moment. "Oh." She reddened. "Oh." She went on thinking, and he
waited patiently. "I suppose that makes sense. Earth must be too crowded by now
to duplicate facilities without good reason."
He laughed aloud again, and this time she tried to take offense. Since Caleb was
not offering any, she failed. "There you go again. You'll simply have to stop
assuming that this is your world with tailfins on it. It isn't, you know."
"Will you explain my error?" she asked, battling her own irritation.
"It's not that we needed to stop excreting in secretтАФit's that we stopped needing to
 do so."
She thought that over very carefully indeed, and again Caleb waited with infinite
patience. He clearly understood that she wanted to work out as much of it as
possible for herselfтАФin order to deny that this strange new world was quite
terrifying.
"Another question," she said finally. "When was the last war?"
His smile was more than approvingтАФit was congratulatory, quite personally
pleased. "Well," he said, "last night a few thousand of us had one hell of an
argument over next year's crop program. Some of the younger folk got quite
exasperated. But if you mean physical violence, deliberate damageтАж well, I'm a
historian, so I could give you the precise date. But if you were to step out into the
hall and ask someone, you'd probably get a blank stare. Does that answer your
question?"
"Yes," she said slowly. "You're telling me that we'veтАж that the race has
actuallyтАж" She paused, found the word. "Actually grown up."
"We like to think that we're adjusting well to adolescence," he said. "Of course,
that implies the same sort of extrapolation you've been trying to useтАФbut that's the
best we can do, too."
"You are wondrously tactful, Caleb," she said. "But dammit, my whole life till now
has been based on extrapolation."