95
MAY THERE BE GOOD ON EARTH
“What happened?” Ivan Nikiforovich asked him.
“Three unusual explosions have been registered,” the man replied. “The
command has been given to put the entire defense complex on level-one
readiness. Less powerful explosions are continuing. There’s been an earth-
quake in Africa. No one is issuing any explanations whatsoever. According
to information exchange data, all the planet’s military blocs have been
moved to level-one readiness. The attacking side has not been determined.
The explosions are continuing and we are attempting to clarify the situ-
ation. All employees of our department have been ordered to proceed to an
analysis of the situation,” the man on the monitor spoke quickly and with
military precision, and at the end he added, no longer coolly but with a cer-
tain concern:
“The explosions are continuing, Ivan Nikiforovich, the explosions are
continuing, I’m signing off.”
The image of the man in uniform disappeared from the monitor screen,
and Ivan Nikiforovich continued to look at the extinguished screen and
think tensely. Slowly, pondering, he turned toward his chair, where little
Dasha was still standing, and he shivered at his own incredible conjecture.
Here was his little girl, squinting, not blinking, looking at the monitor with
the depiction of the modern missile. Suddenly her little body shuddered,
Dasha heaved a relieved sigh, she pushed “Enter,” and when the depiction of
a new missile appeared she once again squinted and began looking hard at
it.
Ivan Nikiforovich stood there as if paralyzed, unable to move from his
spot, and feverishly kept asking himself the same question: “She isn’t really
exploding them, is she? Exploding them with her thought because she
doesn’t like them? She’s exploding them? Really? How?” He wanted to stop
his daughter and called to her, but he was unable to say the words loudly. He
could only whisper, “Dasha, Dashenka, my little girl, stop!” Observing this
whole scene, Kostya suddenly stood up quickly, ran up to his little sister,
gave her a light slap on her bottom, and said:
“Dasha, this way you’ve scared Papa now, too. And Now I’m not going to
talk to you for two days. One day for Mama, the other for Papa. Do you
