Sawyer, Robert J - SS - Ours to Discover.pdf - Robert J Sawyer - przemosta

Ours To Discover

by Robert J. Sawyer

First published in the November 1982 issue of

Leisure Ways, the members' magazine of the

Canadian Automobile Association, in a special fiction

supplement consisting of three views of life in a

future Ontario selected and introduced by John

Robert Colombo.

Old man Withers was crazy. Everybody said so,

everybody but that boy Eric. "Mr. Withers is an archeologist,"

Eric would say -- whatever an archeologist might be.

Remember that funny blue-and-white sweater Withers found?

He claimed he could look at the markings on it and hear the

words "Toronto Maple Leafs" in his head. Toronto was the

name of our steel-domed city, of course, so I believed that

much, but I'd never heard of a maple leaf before. The same

maple leaf symbol was in the centre of all those old flags

people kept finding in the ruins. Some thought a maple leaf

must have been a horrendous beast like a moose or a beaver

or a trudeau. Others thought it was a kind of crystal. But

crystals make people think of rocks and uranium and bombs

and, well, those are hardly topics for polite conversation.

Eric wanted to know for sure. He came around to the

museum and said, "Please, Mr. Curator, help me find out

what a maple leaf is."

Truth to tell, I wasn't the real curator. I'd moved into the

museum, or rom (as some called it), because it was such a

nice building. No one ever used it, after all, and with so few of

us under the Dome you could live just about anywhere you

chose. Well, we looked, but Eric and I didn't have any luck

finding a real maple leaf among the few intact exhibits. "It

must have been something very special," Eric said. "It must

have meant something to our ancestors, back When Times

Were Good." He looked up at me with innocent eyes. "If we

could find out what a maple leaf was, maybe times would be

good again."

Who was I to tell him he was dreaming? "You've looked

everywhere there is to look."

"We haven't looked outside of the Dome."

"Outside? There's nothing outside, lad."

"There has to be."

"Why?" I'd never heard such nonsense.

"There just has to be, that's all."

Well, you can't argue with that kind of logic. "Even if

there is," I said, "there's no way to go outside, so that's that."

"Yes there is," said Eric. "Mr. Withers found a door, way

up in North York. It's all rusted shut. If we took some of the

tools from here we might be able to open it."

Well, the boy insisted on going, and I couldn't let him

hike all that way alone, could I? We set out the next day. It'd

been years since I'd been to Dome's edge. They called it

Steels Avenue up there, which seemed an appropriate name

for where the iron Dome touched the ground. Sure enough,

there was a door. I felt sure somebody would have had the

good sense to jam it closed, so I didn't worry when I gave it a

healthy pry with a crowbar. Damned if the thing didn't pop

right open. We stepped cautiously through.

There was magic out there. A huge ball of light hung up

over our heads. Tall and proud brown columns stretched as

far as the eye could see. On top they were like frozen fire:

orange and red and yellow. Little things were flying to and

fro -- and they were singing! Suddenly Eric fell to his knees.

"Look, Mr. Curator! Maple leafs!" There were millions of

them, covering the ground. More fluttered down from above,

thin and veined and beautiful. Eric looked up at me. "This

must have been what it was like When Times Were Good:

people living outside with the maple leafs. I think we should

live out here, Mr. Curator." I laughed and cried and hugged

the boy. We turned our backs on the dome and marched

forward.

When it came time to fly a flag over our new town

everyone agreed it should be the maple leaf, forever.

THE END

Sawyer, Robert J - SS - Ours to Discover.pdf

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: