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1、Last Night of the WorldBy: Ray BradburyOriginally published in the February 1951 issue of EsquireWhat would you doif you knew this was the last night of the world?What would I do; you mean, seriously?Yes, seriously.I dont know I hadnt thought. She turned the handle of the silver coffeepot toward him
2、 and placed the two cups in their saucers.He poured some coffee. In the background, the two small girls were playing blocks on the parlor rug in the light of the green hurricane lamps. There was an easy, clean aroma of brewed coffee in the evening air.Well, better start thinking about it, he said.Yo
3、u dont mean it? said his wife.He nodded.A war?He shook his head.Not the hydrogen or atom bomb?No.Or germ warfare?None of those at all, he said, stirring his coffee slowly and staring into its black depths. But just the closing of a book, lets say.I dont think I understand.No, nor do I really. Its ju
4、t a feeling; sometimes it frightens me, sometimes Im not frightened at all but peaceful. He glanced in at the girls and their yellow hair shining in the bright lamplight, and lowered his voice. I didnt say anything to you. It first happened about four nights ago.What?A dream I had. I dreamt that it
5、was all going to be over and a voice said it was; not any kind of voice I can remember, but a voice anyway, and it said things would stop here on Earth. I didnt think too much about it when I awoke the next morning, but then I went to work and the feeling as with me all day. I caught Stan Willis loo
6、king out the window in the middle of the afternoon and I said, Penny for your thoughts, Stan, and he said, I had a dream last night, and before he even told me the dream, I knew what it was. I could have told him, but he told me and I listened to him.It was the same dream?Yes. I told Stan I had drea
7、med it, too. He didnt seem surprised. He relaxed, in fact. Then we started walking through offices, for the hell of it. It wasnt planned. We didnt say, lets walk around. We just walked on our own, and everywhere we saw people looking at their desks or their hands or out the windows and not seeing wh
8、at was in front of their eyes. I talked to a few of them; so did Stan.And all of them had dreamed?All of them. The same dream, with no difference.Do you believe in the dream?Yes. Ive never been more certain.And when will it stop? The world, I mean.Sometime during the night for us, and then, as the n
9、ight goes on around the world, those advancing portions will go, too. Itll take twenty-four hours for it all to go.They sat awhile not touching their coffee. Then they lifted it slowly and drank, looking at each other.Do we deserve this? she said.Its not a matter of deserving, its just that things d
10、idnt work out. I notice you didnt even argue about this. Why not?I guess I have a reason, she said.The same reason everyone at the office had?She nodded. I didnt want to say anything. It happened last night. And the women on the block are talking about it, just among themselves. She picked up the ev
11、ening paper and held it toward him. Theres nothing in the news about it.No, everyone knows, so whats the need? He took the paper and sat back in his chair, looking at the girls and then at her. Are you afraid?No. Not even for the children. I always thought I would be frightened to death, but Im not.
12、Wheres that spirit of self-preservation the scientists talk about so much?I dont know. You dont get too excited when you feel things are logical. This is logical. Nothing else but this could have happened from the way weve lived.We havent been too bad, have we?No, nor enormously good. I suppose that
13、s the trouble. We havent been very much of anything except us, while a big part of the world was busy being lots of quite awful things.The girls were laughing in the parlor as they waved their hands and tumbled down their house of blocks.I always imagined people would be screaming in the streets at
14、a time like this.I guess not. You dont scream about the real thing.Do you know, I wont miss anything but you and the girls. I never liked cities or autos or factories or my work or anything except you three. I wont miss a thing except my family and perhaps the change in the weather and a glass of co
15、ol water when the weathers hot, or the luxury of sleeping. Just little things, really. How can we sit here and talk this way?Because theres nothing else to do.Thats it, of course, for if there were, wed be doing it. I suppose this is the first time in the history of the world that everyone has really known just what they were going to be doing during the last night.I wonder what everyone else will do now, this evening, for the next few hours.Go to a show, listen to the radio, watch the TV, play cards, put the children to bed, get to bed themselves, like always.
