100
TALES FROMTHE FUTURE
Dasha looked at the photograph and said,
“I love you very much, Papa dear, but I can’t carry out your request.”
“Why?” Ivan Nikiforovich was amazed.
“Because it won’t work.”
“Why won’t it, Dashenka? It did before. You blew a whole series of mod-
ern missiles, but now it won’t?”
“I was so upset then, Papa dear. I didn’t want you to go away and sit so
many hours at your computer. When you sit at your computer you don’t talk
to anyone and don’t do anything interesting. But now you’re always nearby.
You’ve become very good, dear Papa, so I can’t make anything explode.”
Ivan Nikiforovich realized that Dasha was incapable of blowing up the
square projectiles because the goal of blowing them up, the point, wasn’t
clear to her.” Ivan Nikiforovich paced agitatedly around his study, thinking
feverishly about how to find a solution. He began heatedly trying to con-
vince Dasha. He talked to his daughter as if he were reasoning with himself:
“It won’t work. . . . Yes. . . . That’s too bad. There have been wars in the
world for millennia. Wars ended between some, and others started to fight.
Millions of people died then and are dying now. Huge amounts of money are
spent on weapons. There was an opportunity to put a stop to this endless,
destructive process, but unfortunately . . .” Ivan Nikiforovich looked at
Dasha sitting in the chair.
His daughter’s face was calm. She watched with interest as he paced
around his study and spoke. But the meaning of the words uttered did not
upset Dasha. She did not completely realize what war was, what kind of
money he was talking about, and who was spending it.
She was thinking her own thoughts: “Why is Papa pacing around his study
so upset among the unkind computers, which don’t give out any energy?
Why doesn’t he want to go out into the orchard, where the trees are bloom-
ing and the birds are singing, where every blade of grass and every twig on
the tree caresses your whole body with something invisible? Mama and my
brother Kostya are there now. I hope Papa stops this boring talk so we can go
out into the orchard together. When Mama and Kostya see them, they’ll be
so happy. Mama will smile, and yesterday Kostya promised to tell me how
