Heinlein, Robert A If This Goes On

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
I agreed with them all. It was a perfect small domed cavern, perhaps eighty feet wide and much
longer. How long, I could not tell, as it curved gently away in a gloom-filled turn. But the feature of the
place was a quiet, inky-black pool that filled most of the floor. In front of us was a tiny beach of real sand
that might have been laid down a million years ago for all I know.
Our voice echoed pleasantly and a little bit spookily in the chamber, being broken up and distorted
by stalactites and curtains hanging from the roof. Zeb walked down to the water's edge, squatted and
tested it with his hand. 'Not too cold,' he announced. 'Well, the last one in is a proctor's nark.'
I recognized the old swimming hole call, even though the last time I had heard it, as a boy, it had been
'last one in is a dirty pariah'. But here I could not believe it.
Zeb was already unbuttoning his shirt. I stepped up to him quickly and said privately, 'Zeb! Mixed
bathing? You must be joking?'
'Not a bit of it.' He searched my face. 'Why not? What's the matter with you, boy? Afraid someone
will make you do penance? They won't, you know. That's all over with.'
'But -'
'But what?'
I could not answer. The only way I could make the words come out would have been in the terms
we had been taught in the Church, and I knew that Zeb would laugh at me-in front of the women.
Probably they would laugh, too, since they had known and I hadn't. 'But Zeb,' I insisted, 'I can't. You
didn't tell me . . . and I don't even have a bathing outfit.'
'Neither do I. Didn't you ever go in raw as a kid-and get paddled for it?' He turned away without
waiting for me to answer this enormity and said, 'Are you frail vessels waiting on something?'
'Just for you two to finish your debate,' Maggie answered, coming closer. 'Zeb, I think Mimi and I
will use the other side of that boulder. All right?'
'Okay. But wait a second. No diving, you both understand. And a safety man on the bank at all
times-John and I will take turns.'
'Pooh!' said Miriam. '1 dove the last time I was here.'
'You weren't with me, that's sure. No diving-or I'll warm your pants where they are tightest.'
She shrugged. 'All right, Colonel Crosspatch. Come on, Mag.' They went on past us and around a
boulder half as big as a house. Miriam stopped, looked right at me, and waggled a finger. 'No peeking,
now!' I blushed to my ears.
They disappeared and we heard no more of them, except for giggles. I said hurriedly, 'Look. You do
as you please-and on your own head be it. But I'm not going in. I'll sit here on the bank and be safety
man.'
'Suit yourself. I was going to match you for first duty, but nobody is twisting your arm. Pay out a line,
though, and have it ready for heaving. Not that we'll need it; both the girls are strong swimmers.'
Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
I said desperately, 'Zeb, I'm sure the General would forbid swimming in these underground pools.'
'That's why we don't mention it. "Never worry the C.O. unnecessarily"-standing orders in Joshua's
Army, circa 1400 B.C.' He went right on peeling off his clothes.
I don't know why Miriam warned me not to peek-not that I would!-for when she was undressed she
came straight out from behind that boulder, not toward us but toward the water. But the flood light was
full on her and she even turned toward us for an instant, then shouted, 'Come on, Maggie! Zeb is going to
be last if you hurry.'
I did not want to look and I could not take my eyes off her. I had never seen anything remotely
resembling the sight she was in my life-and only once a picture, one in the possession of a boy in my
parish school and on that occasion I had gotten only a glimpse and then had promptly reported him.
But I could not stop looking, burning with shame as I was.
Zeb beat Maggie into the water-I don't think she cared. He went into the water quickly, almost
breaking his own injunction against diving. Sort of a surface dive I would call it, running into the water
and then breaking into a racing start. His powerful crawl was soon overtaking Miriam, who had started
to swim toward the far end.
Then Maggie came out from behind the boulder and went into the water. She did not make a major
evolution of it, the way Miriam had, but simply walked quickly and with quiet grace into the water. When
she was waist deep, she let herself sink forward and struck out in a strong breast stroke, then shifted to a
crawl and followed the others, when I could hear but hardly see in the distance.
Again I could not take my eyes away if my eternal soul had depended on it. What is it about the
body of a human woman that makes it the most terribly beautiful sight on earth? Is it, as some claim, [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

Archiwum