116
TALES FROMTHE FUTURE
some there, like on Earth.
The boy lifted his pages and showed them to his listeners. On the pages
were drawings of the starry sky and trajectories of the Earth’s movement to-
ward the stars. In the last drawing, two stars bloomed in gardens and Earth
moved away from them in its intergalactic flight.
When the boy finished speaking and showing his drawings, the moderator
announced that whoever wanted to could speak as an opponent or express
his own ideas regarding what he had heard. But no one was in any hurry to
speak. Everyone was silent and, it seemed to me, agitated for some reason.
“Why are they so agitated?” I asked Anastasia. “Do none of the adults
know astronomy?”
“They’re agitated because you need to bring good arguments and speak
coherently. After all, their children are present. If a speech is incomprehens-
ible or unacceptable to a child’s soul, mistrust will arise toward the speaker
or, even worse, dislike. The adults treasure the regard for them and are agit-
ated and don’t want to take a risk. They’re afraid of looking mean in front of
those gathered and most of all in front of their own children.”
The heads of many of those present began turning in the direction of an
elderly, graying man sitting in the middle of the hall. He had his arms
around the shoulders of the little red-headed girl, the one who was one of
the candidates for the report. Next to them sat a young and very pretty wo-
man. Anastasia commented.
“Many are now looking at the graying man in the middle of the hall. He is
a university professor. A scientist. He is retired now. At first, his private life
didn’t work out, and he had no children. Ten years ago he took a parcel of
land and began setting it up himself. A young woman came to love him and
they had this little red-haired girl. The young woman next to him is his wife
and the mother of his daughter. The former professor loves his late child
very much, and the red-haired girl, his daughter, regards him with great re-
spect and love. Many of those present believe that the professor should
speak first.
But the graying professor was slow to speak. It was obvious he was drum-
ming a magazine out of agitation. Finally the professor rose and began to
