"Connie Willis - Fire Watch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

bomb? I can hardly explain my shock behavior to him, and it isn't just the sacred silence o
historian that stops me.
He has not said anything, in fact assigned me my first watches for tomorrow night as if no
had happened, and he seems no more preoccupied than anyone else. Everyone I've met so f
jittery (one thing I had in short-term was how calm everyone was during the raids) and the raids
not come near us since I got here. They've been mostly over the East End and the docks.
There was a reference tonight to a UXB, and I have been thinking about the Dean's manner an
church being closed when I'm almost sure I remember reading it was open through the entire B
As soon as I get a chance, I'll try to retrieve the events of September. As to retrieving anything e
don't see how I can hope to remember the right information until I know what it is I am suppose
do here, if anything.
There are no guidelines for historians, and no restrictions either. I could tell everyone I'm from
future if I thought they would believe me. I could murder Hitler if I could get to Germany. Or c
I? Time paradox talk abounds in the his-tory department, and the graduate students back from
practica don't say a word one way or the other. Is there a tough, immutable past? Or is there a
past every day and do we, the historians, make it? And what are the conse-quences of what we d
there are consequences? And how do we dare do anything without knowing them? Mus
in-terfere boldly, hoping we do not bring about all our downfalls? Or must we do nothing at all
interfere, stand by and watch St. Paul's burn to the ground if need be so that we don't chang
future?
All those are fine questions for a late-night study session. They do not matter here. I coul
more let St. Paul's burn down than I could kill Hitler. No, that is not true. I found that out yeste
in the Whispering Gallery. I could kill Hitler if I caught him setting fire to St. Paul's.

September 26 -I met a young woman today. Dean Matthews has opened the church, so the w
have been doing duties as chars and people have started coming in again. The young wo
reminded me of Kivrin, though Kivrin is a good deal taller and would never frizz her hair like
She looked as if she had been crying. Kivrin has looked like that since she got back from
practicum. The Middle Ages were too much for her. I wonder how she would have coped with
By pouring out her fears to the local priest, no doubt, as I sincerely hoped her lookalike was
going to do.
"May I help you?" I said, not wanting in the least to help. "I'm a volunteer."
She looked distressed. "You're not paid?" she said and wiped at her reddened nose w
handkerchief. "I read about St. Paul's and the fire watch and all and I thought, perhaps ther
position there for me. In the canteen, like, or something. A paying position." There were tears i
red-rimmed eyes.
"I'm afraid we don't have a canteen," I said as kindly as I could, considering how impatient K
always makes me, "and it's not actually a real shelter. Some of the watch sleep in the crypt. I'm a
we're all volunteers, though."
"That won't do, then," she said. She dabbed at her eyes with the handkerchief. "I love St. Pa
but I can't take on volunteer work, not with my little brother Tom back from the country." I wa
reading this situation properly. For all the outward signs of distress, she sounded quite cheerful
no closer to tears than when she had come in. "I've got to get us a proper place to stay: With
back, we can't go on sleeping in the tubes."
A sudden feeling of dread, the kind of sharp pain you get sometimes from involuntary retri
went over me. "The tubes?" I said, trying to get at the memory.
"Marble Arch, usually," she went on. "My brother Tom saves us a place early and I go-"
stopped, held the handkerchief close to her nose, and exploded into it. "I'm sorry," she said,
awful cold!"
Red nose, watering eyes, sneezing. Respiratory infection. It was a wonder I hadn't told her n