101
MAY THERE BE GOOD ON EARTH
you can touch a distant star by touching a pebble or a flower. Kostya always
keeps his promises.”
“Dashenka, am I boring you? Do you not understand what I’ve said?” Ivan
Nikiforovich addressed his daughter. “Are you thinking your own thoughts?”
“Papa dear, I’m thinking, why are you and I here and not in the orchard
where everything is waiting for us?”
Ivan Nikiforovich realized he needed to speak more sincerely and spe-
cifically with his daughter. So he began:
“Dashenka, when you blew up the missiles by looking at their picture, the
idea was born to verify your abilities one more time. Or rather, to show the
whole world Russia’s ability to destroy all the armaments in the world. Then
there would be no point producing them. No point and dangerous. People
themselves would destroy those already made. Universal disarmament
would begin. The square projectiles were manufactured specially so that you
could demonstrate your abilities without anyone dying in the process. Blow
them up, Dashenka.”
“I can’t do that now, Papa dear.”
“Why? You could before and now you can’t.”
“I promised myself never to blow anything up again. And since I prom-
ised, I don’t have the ability to blow anything up now.”
“You don’t? But why did you promise yourself?”
“Brother Kostya showed me pictures in his book of how people’s bodies
fly to pieces from explosions, how people are scared of explosions, how
trees fall and die from explosions, so I promised myself. . . .”
“Dashenka, does that mean you can never do it now? Even just one more
time? Just one. These square projectiles here.”
Ivan Nikiforovich held out a photograph of the square projectile to his
daughter.
“They were manufactured especially and hidden in secluded places in dif-
ferent countries. There aren’t any people next to them or even nearby.
Everyone is waiting to see whether or not they’ll blow up. Blow them up,
daughter. This will not be breaking your promise. No one will perish. On the
contrary . . .”
