90
TALES FROMTHE FUTURE
little Dasha sat in her chair with her eyes closed and noticed nothing. A
barely noticeable but frank smile played on her lips. Suddenly the cuckooing
was repeated, as if someone were in the children’s bedroom and moving the
clock’s hands, forcing the mechanized cuckoo to keep cuckooing, heralding
the coming of the next hour. Ivan Nikiforovich, as the father of the family
was called, turned his swivel chair toward his son and said,
“Kostya, please go try to stop the clock or fix it. Grandfather’s gift has
served us so many years. This is an odd breakdown. . . . Very odd. . . . Go try
to sort it out, Kostya.”
His children always obeyed. They did so not for fear of punishment be-
cause they were never punished. Kostya and Dasha loved and respected their
parents. For them, it was the highest satisfaction to do something with them
or carry out a parental request. Hearing his father’s words, Kostya immedi-
ately stood up, but to his mother and father’s amazement he did not go to
his bedroom. He stood there looking at his younger sister sitting in the chair
with closed eyes. The cuckooing came from the bedroom as before. But
Kostya stood there and looked at his sister without tearing his eyes away.
Galina—the mother of the family—looked with concern at her son stand-
ing stock-still. Suddenly she stood up and shouted in fright, “Kostya. . . .
Kostya, what’s the matter with you?”
Her eight-year-old son returned to his mother, surprised at her fright, and
replied.
“I’m fine, dear mama, and I would like to carry out Papa’s request but I
can’t.”
“Why? You can’t move a little? You can’t go into your own room?”
“I can move”—as proof Kostya waved his arms and stamped his feet—“but
there’s no point going to my room. She’s here and she’s stronger.”
“Who’s here? Who’s stronger?” His mother was getting more and more
worried.
“Dasha,” Kostya replied, and he pointed at his smiling younger sister,
eyes still closed, sitting in the chair . “She’s the one moving the clock’s
hands. I tried to put them back where they were, but I can’t when she . . .”
“What are you saying, Kostenka? Both you and Dashenka are here in front
