"Geoff Ryman - Was" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ryman Geoff)

Reynolds," Dorothy said, and kicked both feet.

"People tell me I shouldn't marry him. But do you know, I think I might just
do it anyway."

Dorothy was pleased and looked at her white shoes and white stockings.
"Now," said Etta. "What we're going to do is wait here till your aunty
comes. And if she can't come here today, then we'll go and spend the night
at my house and then go to your aunty's in the morn-ing. Would you like
that?"

Dorothy nodded yes. "Is it nice here?" she asked.

"Nice enough," said Etta. She told Dorothy about the trees of Manhattan.
When the town was planned, every street had a row of trees planted down
each side. The avenues had two rows of trees planted on each side, in case
the road was ever widened. So, Manhattan was called the City of Trees.
Dorothy liked that. It was as if it were a place where everyone lived in
trees instead of houses. Nimbly, Etta packed up the remains of their dinner.

Then they went to the window. Dorothy saw Manhattan.

There was a white two-story house on the corner of the road, with a porch
and a door that had been left open. Dorothy could hear a child calling
inside. There was a smell of baking. It looked like home.

And there were the trees, as tall as the upper floor. Beyond the trees, there
was a honey-colored building. The Blood Hotel, Etta called it. There were
hills: Blue Mont with smoke coming out of its top like a chimney; College
Hill, where Etta lived.

"Are there any Indians?" Dorothy asked.

Not anymore, Etta told her. But near Manhattan, there had been an Indian
city.

"It was called Blue Earth," said Etta. "They had over a hundred houses.
Each house was sixty feet long. They grew pumpkins and squash and
potatoes and fished in the river, and once a year they left to hunt buffalo.
They were the Kansa Indians, which is why one river is called the Kansas,
and the other is called Big Blue. Because they met right here where the
Kansas lived."

Dorothy saw it, a river as blue as the sea in her picture books at home. The
Kansas River was called yellow, and Dorothy saw the two currents, yellow
and blue mixing like colors in her paint box.

"Is it green there?" she asked. She meant where the blue and yellow mixed.

"It's green everywhere here," Etta answered. They went back to sit on the