Madeleine L'engle - Time Quartet 04 - Many Waters

VIP免费

2024-12-08 0 0 438.86KB 205 页 5.9玖币

侵权投诉

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

1 ^ Virtual particles

and virtual unicorns

A sudden snow shower put an end to hockey practice.

"We can't even see the puck," Sandy Murry shouted

across the wind. "Let's go home." He skated over to the

side of the frozen pond, sitting on an already snow-covered

rock to take off his skates.

There were calls of agreement from the other skaters.

Dennys, Sandy's twin brother, followed him, snow gather-

ing in his lashes, so that he had to blink in order to see

the rock. "Why do we have to live in the highest, coldest,

windiest spot in the state?"

Hoots of laughter and shouted goodbyes came from the

other boys. "Where else would you want to live?" Dennys

was asked.

Snow was sliding icily down the inside of his collar.

"Baki. Fiji. Someplace warm."

One of the boys knotted his skate laces and slung his

skates around his neck. "Would you really? With all those

tourists?"

"Yeah, and jet-setters crowding the beach."

"And beautiful people."

4 -^s MANY WATERS

"Andlitterbugs."

One by one the other boys drifted off, leaving the twins.

"I thought you liked winter," Sandy said.

"By mid-March, I'm getting tired of it."

"But you wouldn't really want to go to some tourists^

paradise, would you?"

"Oh, probably not. Maybe I would have, in the olden

days, before the population explosion. I'm famished. Race

you home."

By the time they reached their house, an old white farm-

house about a mile from the village, the snow was begin-

ning to let up, though the wind was still strong. They went

in through the garage, past their mother's lab. Pulling off

their windbreakers, they threw them at hooks, and burst

into the kitchen.

"Where's everybody?" Sandy called.

Dennys pointed to a piece of paper held by magnets to

the refrigerator door. They both went up to it, to read:

DEAR TWINS, AM OFF TO TOWN WITH MEG AND CHARLES

WALLACE FOR OUR DENTAL CHECKUPS. YOUR TURN IS

NEXT WEEK. DON'T THINK YOU CAN GET OUT OF IT.

YOU'VE BOTH GROWN SO MUCH THIS YEAR THAT IT IS

ESSENTIAL YOL1 HAVE YOUR TEETH CHECKED.

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (1 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

LOVE, MOTHER

Sandy bared his teeth ferociously. "We've never had a

cavity,"

Dennys made a similar grimace. "But we have grown.

We're just under six feet."

"Bet. if we were measured today we'd be over."

Dennys opened the door to the refrigerator. There was

half a chicken in an earthenware dish, with a sign:

5 -&-« Virtual particles and virtual unicorns

VERBOTEN. THIS IS FOR DINNER.

Sandy pulled out the meat keeper. "Ham all right?"

"Sure. With cheese."

"And mustard."

"And sliced olives."

"And ketchup."

"And pickles."

"No tomatoes here. Bet you Meg made herself a BLT."

"There's tots of liverwurst. Mother likes that."

"Yuck."

"It's okay with cream cheese and onion."

They put their various ingredients on the kitchen coun-

ter and cut thick slices of bread fresh from the oven.

Dennys peered in to sniff apples slowly baking. Sandy

looked over to the kitchen table, where Meg had spread

out her books and papers. "She's taken more than her fair

share of the table."

"She's in college," Dennys depended. "We don't have as

much homework as she does."

"Yeah, and I'd hate that long commute every day."

"She likes to drive. And at least she gees home early."

Dennys plunked his own books down on the big table.

Sandy stood looking at one of Meg's open notebooks.

"Hey, listen to this. Do you suppose we'll have this kind of

junk when we're in college? /( seems quite evident that

there was definite prebiotic existence of protein ancestors

of polymers, and that therefore the primary beings were

not a-amino adds. I suppose she knows what she's writing

about. I haven't the foggiest."

Dennys flipped back a page. "Look at her title. The

Million Doller question: the chicken or the egg, amino

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (2 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

6 -V^ MANY WATERS

acids or their polymers. She may be a mathematical genius,

but she still can't spell."

"You mean, you know what she's writing about?" Sandy

demanded.

"I have a pretty good idea. It's the kind of thing Mother

and Dad argue about at dinner—polymers, virtual parti-

cles, quasars, all that stuff."

Sandy looked at his twin. "You mean, you listen?"

"Sure. Why not? You never know when a little useless

knowledge is going to come in handy. Hey, what's this

book? It's about bubonic plague. I'm the one who wants to

be a doctor."

Sandy glanced over. "It's history, not medicine, stupe."

"Hey, why are lawyers never bitten by snakes?" Dennys

asked.

"I don't know. And don't care."

"Well, you're the one who wants to be the lawyer. Come

on. Why do lawyers never get bitten by snakes?"

"I give up. Why do lawyers never get bitten by snakes?"

"Profession-il courtesy."

Sandy groaned. "Very funny. Ha- Ha."

Dennys slathered mustard over a thick slice of ham.

"When I think about the amount of schooling still ahead

of us, I almost lose my appetite."

"Almost."

"Well, not quite."

Sandy opened the refrigerator door, looking for some-

thing else to pile on his sandwich. "We seem to eat more

than the rest of the family put together. Charles Wallace

eaEs like a bird. Well, judging by the amount we spend on

7 -v^s. Virtual particles and virtual unicorns

bird feed, birds are terrible gluttons. But you know what

I mean."

"At least he's settling down in school, and the other kids

aren't picking on him the way they used to."

"He still doesn't look more than six, but half the time

I think he knows more than we do. We're certainly the

ordinary, run-of-the-mill ones in the family."

"The family can do with some ordinary, run-of-the-mill

people. And we're not exactly dumb. If I'm going to be a

doctor and you're going to be a lawyer, we've got to be

bright enough for all that education. I'm thirsty."

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (3 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

Sandy opened the cupboard above the kitchen door.

Only a year before, they had been too short to reach it

without climbing on a stool. "Where's the Dutch cocoa?

That's what I want." Sandy moved various boxes of lentils,

barley, kidney beans, cans of tuna and salmon.

"Bet Mother's got it out in the lab. Let's go look."

Dennys sliced more ham. >-

Sandy put a large dill pickle in'his mouth. "Let's finish

making the sandwiches first."

"Food first. Fine."

With sandwiches an inch or more thick in their hands,

and full mouths, they went back out to the pantry and

turned into the lab. In the early years of the century, when

ihe house had been part of a working dairy farm, the lab

had been used to keep milk, butter, eggs, and there was

still a large churn in one corner, which now served to

hold a lamp. The work counter with the stone sink func-

tioned as well for holding lab equipment as it had for milk

and eggs. There was now a formidable-looking microscope,

8 -<^ MANY WATERS

some strange equipment only their mother understood,

and an old-fashioned Bunsen burner, over which, on a

homemade tripod, a black kettle was simmering.

Sandy sniffed appreciatively. "Stew."

"I think we're supposed to call it boeuf bourguignon."

Dennys reached up to the shelf over [he sink and pulled

down a square red tin. "Here's the cocoa. Mother and Dad

like it at bedtime."

"When's Dad coming home?" Dennys wanted to know.

"Tomorrow night, I think Mother said."

Sandy, his mouth full, held his hands out to the wood

stove. "If we had our driver's licenses, we could go to the

airport to meet him."

"We're good drivers already," Dennys agreed.

Sandy stuffed another large bite of sandwich into his

mouth, and left the warmth of the stove to wander to the

far corner of the lab. where there was a not-quite-ordinary-

looking computer. "How long has Dad had this gizmo

here?"

"He put it in last week. Mother wasn't particularly

pleased."

"Well. it 15 supposed to be her lab," Sandy said. '

"What's he programming?" Dennys asked.

"He's usually pretty good about explaining. Even though

I don't understand most of it. Tessering and red-shifting

and space/time continuum and stuff." Sandy stared at the

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (4 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

keyboard, which had eight rather than the usual four ranks

of keys. "Half of these symbols are Greek. I mean, literally

Greek."

Dennys, ramming the last of his sandwich into his

9 •^•s- Virtual particles and virtual unicorns

mouth, peered over his twin's shoulder "Well, I more or

less get the usual science signs. That looks like Hebrew,

there, and that's Cyrillic. I haven't the faintest idea what

these keys are for."

Sandy looked down at the lab floor, which consisted of

large slabs of stone. There was a thick rug by the sink,

and another in front of the shabby leather chair and read-

ing lamp. "I don't know how Mother stands this place in

winter."

"She dresses like an Eskimo." Dennys shivered, then put

out one finger and tapped on the standard keys of the

computer: "TAKE ME SOMEPLACE WARM."

"Hey, I don't think we ought to mess with that," Sandy

warned.

"What do you expect? A genie to pop up, like the one in

Aladdin and the magic lamp? This is just a computer, for

heaven's sake. It can't do anything it isn't programmed to

J TT b-

do.

"Okay, then." Sandy held his fingers over the keyboard.

"A lot of people think computers are alive—I mean, really,

sort of like Aladdin's genie." He tapped out on the stand-

ard keys: "SOMEPLACE WARM AND SPARSELY POPULATED."

Dennys shouldered him aside, adding: "LOW HUMIDITY."

Sandy turned away from the odd computer. "Let's make

the cocoa."

"Sure." Dennys picked up the red tin, which he had set

down on the counter. "Since Mother's using the Uunsen

burner, we'd better go back to the kitchen to make the

cocoa."

"Okay. It's warmer there, anyhow."

10 -s^ MANY WATERS

"I could do with another sandwich. If they've gone all

the way into town, supper'll probably be late."

They left the lab, closing the door behind them. "Hey."

Sandy pointed. "We didn't see this." There was a small

note taped to the door: EXPERIMENT IN PROGRESS. PLEASE

KEEP OUT.

"Uh-oh. Hope we didn't upset anything."

"We'd better tell Mother when she gets back."

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (5 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

"Why didn't we see that note?"

"We were busy stuffing our faces."

Dennys crossed the hall and opened the kitchen door

and was met with a blast of heat. "Hey!" He Cried to step

back, but Sandy was on his heels.

"Fire!" Sandy yelled. "Get the fire extinguisher!"

"Too late! We'd better get out and—" Dennys heard the

kitchen door slam behind them. "We've got to get out—"

Sandy yelled, "I can't find the fire extinguisher!"

"I can't find the walls—" Dennys groped through a per-

vasive mist, his hands touching nothing.

Came a great sonic boom.

Then absolute silence.

Slowly the mist began to clear away, to dissipate.

"Heyt" Sandy's changing voice cracked and soared.

"What's going on?"

Dennys's equally cracking voice followed. "Where on

earth ... What's happened ..."

"What was that explosion?"

"Hey!"

They looked around to see nothing familiar. No kitchen

door. No kitchen. No fireplace with its fragrant logs. No

1 1 "s.-5^ Virtual particles and virtual unicorns

table, with its pot of brightly blooming geraniums. No

ceiling strung with rows of red peppers and white garlic.

No floor with the colorful, braided rugs. They were stand-

ing on sand, burning white sand. Above them, the sun was

in a sky so hot that it was no longer blue but had a bronze

cast. There was nothing but sand and sky from horizon to

horizon.

"Is the house all right?" Sandy's voice shook.

"I don't think we went into the house at all..."

"You don't think it was on fire?"

"No. 1 think we opened the door and we were here."

"What about the mist?"

"And the sonic boom?"

"And what about Dad's computer?"

"Uh-oh. What're we going to do?" Dennys's voice started

out in the bass, soared, and cracked to a piercing treble.

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (6 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

"Don't panic," Sandy warned, but his voice trembled.

Both boys looked around wildly. The brazen sunlight

beat down on them. After the cold of snow and ice, the

sudden heat was shocking. Small particles of mica in the

sand caught the light and blazed up at them. "Hey."

Dennys's voice cracked again. "What're we going to do?"

Sandy tried to speak calmly. "We're the ones who do

things, remember?"

"We just did something." Dennys was bitter. "We just

blew ourselves here, wherever here is."

Sandy agreed. "Stupid. We were stupid, mucking around

with an experiment-in-progress."

"Only we didn't know it was in progress."

"We should have stopped to think."

12 -a^ Ai^jvr tv^r£fis

Dennys looked around at sky and sand, both shimmer-

ing with heat. "What do you suppose Dad was up to? If we

knew that—"

"Space travel. Tessenng. Getting past the speed of light.

You know that." Anxiety made Dennys sharp.

The sun beat down on Sandy's head, so that he reached

up and wiped sweat from around his eyes. "I wish we'd

never thought of that Dutch cocoa."

Dennys pulled off his heavy cable-knit sweater. Licked

his dry lips- Moaned. "Lemonade."

Sandy, too, stripped off his sweater. "We got what we

asked for, didn't we? Heat. Low humidity. Sparse popu-

lation."

Dennys looked around, squinting against the glare.

"Sparse wasn't meant to mean nobody."

Sandy unbuttoned his plaid flannel shirt. "I thought we

asked for a beach."

"Not on Dad's gizmo we didn't. Just sparse population.

Do you suppose we've blown ourselves onto a dead planet?

One where the sun is going into its red-giant phase before

it blows up?"

Despite the intense heat. Sandy shivered, glanced at the

sun, then quickly away. "I think the sun in its red-giant

phase would be bigger. This sun doesn't look any larger

than our own sun in movies set in deserts."

"Do you suppose it is our own sun?" Dennys asked

hopefully.

Sandy shrugged. "We could be anywhere. Anywhere in

the universe. If we were going to play with that doggone

keyboard, we should have been more specific. I wish we'd

just settled for Baki or Fiji, beautiful people or no."

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (7 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

I 3 ^vs- Virtual particles and virtual unicorns

"I'd just as soon see a beautiful person. Right now. I

wish we hadn't done whatever it is we've done." Dennys

pulled off his cotton turtleneck, stripping down to his

white briefs and tank top.

Sandy stood on one leg to start pulling off his warmly

lined pants, glanced again at the fierce sun, then quickly

closed his eyes. "They'll miss us when they get back from

the dentist."

"But they won't know where to look. Mother has more

sense than we have. She'd never mess around with any-

thing of Dad's unless he was right there."

"Mother's not interested in astrophysics. She's into vir-

tual particles and things tike that."

- "She'll still miss us."

"Dad'll be home tomorrow," Sandy said hopefully. He

was now stripped to his underclothes.

Dennys picked up his things and made a tidy bundle.

"Unless we find some shade, 'we're going to have to put

our clothes back on in half an hour, or at least some of

them, or we'll get a vicious sunburn."

"Shade." Sandy groaned, and scanned the horizon. "Den!

Do I see a palm tree?"

Dennys held his hand to shade his eyes. "Where?"

"There. All the way over there."

"Yes. No. Yes."

"Let's head toward it."

"Good. At least it's something to do." Dennys trudged

off. "If it's the same time of day it was when we left

home—"

"It was winter at home." Sandy's eyes were almost closed

against the glare. "The sun was already setting."

14 t^ MANY WATERS

Dennys pointed to their shadows, as long and skinny as

they were. "The sun's slightly behind us ... We might be

heading east, if it's our own kind of sun."

Sandy asked, "Are you scared? I am. We've really got

ourselves into a mess."

Dennys made no reply. They trudged along. They had

left on their shoes and socks, and Dennys suggested, "It

might be easier walking barefooted."

Sandy bent down and touched the sand with the palm

of his hand, then shook his head. "Feel it. It would burn

our feet."

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (8 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

"Do you still see chat palm tree?"

"I chink so."

They moved across the sand in silence. After a few min-

utes it seemed firmer under their feet, and they saw that

there was rock under the sand.

"That's better," Sandy said.

"Hey!"

The ground seemed to shudder under their feet. Dennys

flailed his arms to try to keep his balance, but was flung to

the ground. "Is this an earthquake or something?"

Sandy, too, was thrown down. Around them they could

hear a noisy grating of rock, and a deep, thunderous roar-

ing beneath them. Then there was silence, abrupt and

complete. The rock steadied under them. The earthquake,

or whatever it was, had lasted less than a minute, but it had

been of sufficient force to push up a large section of rock,

making a small cliff about six feet high. It was striated

and raw-looking, but it provided a shadow that stretched

across the sand.

Both boys climbed to their feet and headed into the

15 •'&•« Virtual particles and virtual unicorns

welcome shade. Sandy touched the sheared-off rock, and

it felt cool. "Maybe we could sit here for a minute . . ."

The sun was still fiercely hot. but the slab of rock they

sat on was cool. The relief of the shade was so great that

for a few minutes they sat in silence. Their bodies were

slippery with sweat; it trickled into their eyes. They sat

without moving, trying to take every advantage of the

shade.

"I don't know what's going to happen next, but what-

ever it is, I'm not likely to be surprised," Sandy said at

last. "Are you sure it was Dad's experiment we weren't

supposed to interrupt? Couldn't it have been Mother's?"

"Mother's doing something with sub-atomic particles

again," Dennys said. "Last night at dinner, she spent most

of the time talking about virtual particles."

"It sounded crazy to me," Sandy said. "Particles which

have a tendency to life."

"That's right." Dennys nodded- "Virtual particles. Al-

most-particles. What you said. Particles which tend to be."

Sandy shook his head. "Most of Mother's sub-atomic

experiments are so, oh, so sort of infinitesimal, it hasn't

mattered if we've come into the lab."

"But maybe if she's looking for a virtual particle—"

Dennys sounded hopeful.

"No. It sounds to me more like something of Dad's. It

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (9 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt

was just sort of wishful thinking when I asked if it could

be something of Mother's. Why didn't we see that notice

on the door?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"And I wish our parents did ordinary things," Sandy

complained. "If Dad was a plumber or an electrician, and

16 •^^ MANY WATERS

if Mother was somebody's secretary, it would be a lot easier

for us."

"And we wouldn't have to be such great athletes and

good guys at school," Dennys agreed. "And—" He broke

off as the earth started to tremble again. It was a brief

tremor, with no heaving of stones, but both boys sprang

to their feet-

"Hey!" Sandy jumped, almost knocking Dennys over.

From behind the rock cliff came a very small person,

perhaps four feet tall. Not a child. He was firmly muscled,

darkly tanned, and there was a down of hair across his

upper lip and on his chin. He wore a loincloth, with a

small pouch at the waist. As he saw them. he reached for

the pouch in a swift, alarmed gesture.

"Hey, wait." Sandy held up his open hands, palm for-

ward.

Dennys repeated the gesture. "We won't hurt you."

"Who are you?" Sandy asked.

"Where are we?" Dennys added.

The small man looked at them in mingled curiosity and

fear. "Giants!" he cried. He had a man's voice, a young

man's voice, deeper than Sandy's or Dennys's.

Sandy shook his head. "We're not giants."

"We're boys," Dennys augmented. "Who are youP"

The young man touched himself lightly on the fore-

head. "Japheth."

"That's your name?" Sandy asked.

He touched his forehead again. "Japheth."

Perhaps this was the custom of the country, wherever in

the universe it was. Sandy touched his own forehead.

"Alexander. Sandy."

\ 7 -^x- Virtual particles and virtual unicorns

Dennys made the same gesture. "Dennys."

"Giants," the young man stated.

"No." Sandy corrected. "Boys."

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20...delein%20L'%20Engle%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt (10 of 205) [12/29/2004 1:00:23 AM]

文档加载中……请稍候！
如果长时间未打开，您也可以点击刷新试试。

下载文档到电脑，查找使用更方便

5.9 玖币 0人已下载

立即下载 VIP免费下载

摘要：

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%20E-books/Madelein%20L'%20Engle\%20-%20Many%20Waters.txt1^VirtualparticlesandvirtualunicornsAsuddensnowshowerputanendtohockeypractice."Wecan'tevenseethepuck,"SandyMurryshoutedacrossthewind."Let'sgohome."Heskatedovertothesideofthefrozenpond,sittingonanalreadys...

展开>> 收起<<

Madeleine L'engle - Time Quartet 04 - Many Waters.pdf

共205页,预览11页

还剩页未读，继续阅读

声明：本站为文档C2C交易模式，即用户上传的文档直接被用户下载，本站只是中间服务平台，本站所有文档下载所得的收益归上传人(含作者)所有。玖贝云文库仅提供信息存储空间，仅对用户上传内容的表现方式做保护处理，对上载内容本身不做任何修改或编辑。若文档所含内容侵犯了您的版权或隐私，请立即通知玖贝云文库，我们立即给予删除！

Madeleine L'engle - Time Quartet 04 - Many Waters

相关推荐

开通VIP享超值会员特权

作者详情

相关内容

热门标签

举报选择: