Alice: The Girl From Earth - Булычев Кир. Страница 70

“One children’s ticket, round trip to the capitol.” Alice said, handing her money beneath the cashier’s glass window.

The cashier’s round face seemed to stick out through the little window. She looked Alice over from head to foot and said,

“Such a grown up little girl, and you want to save money on your ticket. That will be seven regals for a full fare.”

“But I’ve always paid the children’s…”

Then Alice cut off; Purr was kicking at her through the bag.

“Oh yes, of course.” Alice said and reached into her pocket for the money. They did not have much money left all of ten coins “And when will te train be leaving…”

But the cashier made no answer and slammed the window shut.

“The cashiers here are anything but polite.” Alice said. “We don’t have any like that at home.”

Alice went out onto the platform and stopped in the shelter of an iron column. She did not want to be seen walking back and forth.

The train stood beside the platform; the engine was belching steam and the numerous passengers were saying their good-byes and finding seats. A number of them were still half asleep, as though they had just awakened.

Alice selected a car with no one else in it, and hurried toward it. A conductor in a tall orange hat stood beside it.

“Your ticket?”

Alice handed him the ticket.

“Can’t you read?” He asked. “It’s written right here third class. This is the first class wagon.”

“And what’s the difference?” Alice asked.

The conductor looked her over from head to foot and said:

“The price.”

Alice hurried to the next open car in the train to keep him from getting a good look at her; it was poorer looking and filled with people. She heard him say:

“Look at her! What do you make of that? Is she a foreigner or what?”

And so Alice decided to tell everyone that she was a foreigner. She stopped beside the train car but did not go into the doorway, bent over the bag and asked Purr in a whisper:

“What will happen if I tell everyone I’m a foreigner?”

“Tell everyone you’re from the north and not, I repeat not, from the south.”

“Why?”

“Because they have a trade pact with the north, but they’re getting ready for a little border war with the south.”

“It won’t start.” Alice shook her head. “They won’t have time.”

“But with your aid, they will.”

“And with whom are you speaking citizeness?” An official voice came from behind her.

Alice stood straight up. The voice came from a thickset man in a yellow uniform with a large gold hammer on his cap. She decided he had to be some sort of policemen and her first move was to run away, anywhere. But there was nowhere to run that would not be seen.

“Stop!” The little man in yellow grabbed her by the sleeve. “Where do you come from? Who have you been talking to, I ask you?”

“I’m from the North.” Alice said. “I’m a foreigner. A foreigner from the North.”

“You hardly look it.” The little official said.

But then the steam train’s whistle began to call. Alice torn away from the man and jumped on bottom rung of the moving wagon’s steps.

The little man in the yellow uniform seemed to be thinking what he could do, but at the same time Alice had shown her ticket to the conductor and made her way into the packed train car. She was able to find a compartment occupied by three people in poor clothing and tattered hats. The people were sleeping. The fourth place was unoccupied.

“Who was that?” Alice asked when she’d had a chance to catch her breath and could bend over the bag.

“That was the porter.” The whisper in answer came far too loud.

The train gathered speed and, clattering the rails, headed for the capitol.

“Could he have arrested me?”

“I don’t know.” The archaeologist said. “Are you sure that no one can hear you?”

“No. They’re sound asleep.”

“Then we’ll finally read the newspaper. Put the bag on the floor. It won’t rock as much.”

Alice unfolded the newspaper. It was yesterdays; on the front page a read headline blazed:

“We did it then.” Alice whispered. “We made it in time. The Temporalists were right on.”

13

Fortunately their neighbors in the coach debarked after two stations and Alice found herself alone. She pulled the archaeologist out of the bag and together they read all the information in the newspapers, where it described the astronauts flight, and how they were to be welcomed back at the launch site.

They were even able to work out the best ways to get across the capitol from the train station to the landing site. Although the archaeologists had not yet excavated the capitol city, Purr had found tourist maps and street guides to the capitol in the provincial city’s library and had them copied out. The money situation was poor. They had just enough money for the street railway or local bus. There was not enough to pay for food.

“I have an idea!” The little archaeologist laughed morosely and blinked his single eye to Alice. “If it comes to it you can, like in the old fairy tale, sell me, your sole friend.”

“No one would buy you without your tail.” Alice replied..

“Don’t worry about that.” The archaeologist said. “I found your grandmother’s needle and thread. Only you tossed the bag around so much I was afraid of skewering myself in the hand. But now I have a chance to sew the tale back on. It will be done in half an hour.”

Alice looked out the window. Outside, beyond the window glass, the land looked ordinary; in fact it looked enormously backward compared with Earth, but back a hundred years ago Earth would have looked enormously backward. No monorails, no flyers, no antigravs, flying houses or any other sorts of ordinary, every day things.

The archaeologist was muttering something to himself pod nos and sewing the tail back on. Alice cold have helped him she was better with needle and thread than Purr but how could one offer ones services when the task was sewing a tail on oneself?

Alice turned to study the portraits of the astronauts in the newspapers. One of the astronauts appeared to be larger than the others. He was young, dark eyed, and with a smile so wide it seemed he’d have trouble not breaking out into laughter. “Engineer Tolo.” She read his name aloud, and remembered it.

The door to their compartment opened and an old woman entered. The old woman was small, with around, ruddy face. She wore a long blue dress. Alice saw the old woman’s eyes suddenly widen with fright. The old woman was looking down, at the floor boards.

“Oh!” The old woman exclaimed.

Alice looked at the same spot and so caught the little the archaeologist unawares, clutching the tail in one and in the other holding the needle and thread, try to crawl back into the carpet bag. Alice quickly opened the bag wider and Purr flung himself inside. Alice looked at the old woman again.

The old woman stepped back into the corridor; her mouth was already opened, as though she were about to scream.

“Don’t be afraid, ma’am?” Alice said. “Don’t be frightened. It always plays like that.”

“Oh.” The old woman said, as though she had been somewhat frightened, on hearing Alice’s voice. “It seemed to me that….”

“What?”

“Don’t laugh, missy.” The old woman said. “For a moment I was certain that your cat was sewing his own tail onto…. My eyes are deceiving me.”

The old woman quickly forgot her fright, sat down by the window, untied the bundle she was carrying, reached inside and pulled out two apples. She kept one for herself, but extended the other to Alice.

“And where are you going, young one?” The old woman asked.

“I’m bound for the capitol.”

“That’s rather obvious, the capitol.” The old woman agreed. “And what do you plan to do there.”