"Ian Watson - The Boy Who Lost an Hour" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

Autumn, you see."
No, he didn't see.
"Because in the Autumn all the leaves fall off the trees. That's when time goes back an hour. The
original idea was to make the world lighter on winter mornings. But now it's Spring, so tonight the time
goes forward again to what it ought to be anyway. So all the clocks have to change."
Who could possibly change all the clocks in the world? Did they change themselves?
Aunt Jean took another swallow of red wine. "People change their own clocks, Tony."
He brandished the watch she had given him.
"You have to change it yourself." She giggled. "Two o'clock in the morning: that's when the time
changes."
When everybody was asleep in bed? People must get up specially. But his Aladdin watch didn't
have a 'larmтАФlike those watches which would go beep-beep.
"It doesn't have a 'larm!" he protested.
Aunt Jean seemed annoyed. "Well, I'm sure I'm very sorry about that!"

Back home, the man on the TV said how everyone should put their clocks forward at two in the
morning; so this must be really important.
You had to put your own forward. Had to do it yourself. Tony was Big Five now. He asked Daddy
to promise to wake him up at two, cos there was no 'larm on his watch. "You oughtn't to have said that
to Aunt Jean," Mummy told him quite sternly. "As though you weren't satisfied! You hurt her feelings."
Daddy made a never-mind face at Mummy. "It's his birthday, after allтАФ"
"Huh, at this rate he won't have anotherтАФ"
"Let's forget it, hmm? Tiring day. I'll wake him up at two." And Daddy had winked at Mummy.
"What happens," asked Tony, "if you don't put the clock forward?"
"In that case," Mummy said sharply, "you get left behind."

He'd been left behind. Cos they thought he'd been rude to Aunt Jean; but he hadn't been!
A little girl was standing in the garden by the big rose bush, out of sight of the street. She was waving
to him. She must have been left behind too!
The big window was kept locked for safety when the house was empty and at night, but Mummy
had showed him how to unlock it in case there was ever a fire. As he pushed the window open the girl
came closer. She was skinny, with untidy short brown hair. Her dress was printed with gray flowers
which might have been any color during the day. That dress looked a bit torn and dirtied. Her thin ankles
poked into trainers fastened tightly by those cling-together straps.
"The clocks have changed," Tony told her, and showed his Aladdin watch. "I've been left behind!"
For a moment he thought she was going to laugh at him, but then she replied firmly, "You aren't the
only one."
"Daddy promised to wake me but he left me sleeping when he changed the clock."
"You won't be able to wake your Daddy now," she said with absolute certainty. "You can't wake a
Daddy or a Mummy or anyone. They're all in a different hour. They're in their own world." She seemed
to know all about this. Of course she must, if she was here and able to talk to him. What had she done
that was wrong?
"They wouldn't be able to see you!" she hissed.
Tim had told Tony about a movie. Tim's baby-sitter and her boyfriend had wanted to watch the
movie, and Tim was supposed to be in bed upstairs. Tim's home was bigger than Tony's; it had two
floors. Tim had crept downstairs. The door to the sitting room was ajar. He had watched through the
gap.
Once upon a time in a big old house a little girl had died horribly. A man and woman moved in, who
didn't know about the girl. They already had two young sons but they wanted a girl as well. Soon
somebody whom no one could see was using the toilet. Somebody was taking snacks and milk from the