"John Varley - Persistence Of Vision2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Varley John)

come when I whistled.
It was about half a mile to the cluster of buildings ahead. There were four or five domes
made of something translucent, like greenhouses, and several conventional square buildings. There
were two windmills turning lazily in the breeze.

There were several banks of solar water heaters. These are flat constructions of glass and wood,
held off the ground so: they can tilt to follow the sun. They were almost vertical; now,
intercepting the oblique rays of sunset. There were a ` few trees, what might have been an
orchard.
About halfway there I passed under a wooden footbridge. It arched over the road, giving
access from the east pasture to the west pasture. I wondered, What was wrong with a simple gate?
Then I saw something coming down the road in my direction. It was traveling on the tracks


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and it was very quiet. I stopped and waited.
It was a sort of converted mining engine, the sort that
pulls loads of coal up from the bottom of shafts. It was=
battery-powered, and it had gotten quite close before I heard,
it. A small man was driving it. He was pulling a car behind -
him and singing as loud as he could with absolutely no
sense of pitch. _
He got closer and closer, moving about five miles per hour, one hand held out as if he was
signaling a left turn.: Suddenly I realized what was happening, as he was bearing. down on me. He
wasn't going to stop. He was counting fenceposts with his hand. I scrambled up the fence just in
time. There wasn't more than six inches of clearance be~: tween the train and the fence on either
side. His palm-' touched my leg as I squeezed close to the fence, and he-r stopped abruptly.
He leaped from the car and grabbed me and I thought I,
was in trouble. But he looked concerned, not angry, and felt'
me all over, trying to discover if I was hurt. I was embarrassed. -
Not from the examination; because I had been foolish. The=
Indian had said they were all deaf and blind but I guess I
hadn't quite believed him. -
He was flooded with relief when I managed to convey to-.= him that I was all right. With
eloquent gestures he made me; understand that I was not to stay on the road. He indicated that I
should climb over the fence and continue through the: fields. He repeated himself several times to
be sure I understood, then held on to me as I climbed over to assure himself that I was out of the
way. He reached over the fence ands held my shoulders, smiling at me. He pointed to the road and
shook his head, then pointed to the buildings and nodded. He touched my head and smiled when I
nodded. He
climbed back onto the engine and started up, all the time nodding and pointing where he wanted me
to go. Then he was off again.
I debated what to do. Most of me said to turn around, go back to the wall by way of the
pasture and head back into the hills. These people probably wouldn't want me aroand. I doubted
that I'd be able to talk to them, and they might even resent me. On the other hand, I was
fascinated, as who wouldn't be? I wanted to see how they managed it. I still didn't believe that
they were all deaf and blind. It didn't seem possible.
The Sheltie was sniffing at my pants. I looked down at her and she backed away, then