thirty-five

round and round and upside down went the peach as it plummeted towards the earth, and they were allclinging desperately to the stem to save themselves from being flung into space.

faster and faster it fell. down and down and down, racing closer and closer to the houses and streetsbelow, where it would surely smash into a million pieces when it hit. and all the way along fifthavenue and madison avenue, and along all the other streets in the city, people who had not yetreached the underground shelters looked up and saw it coming, and they stopped running and stoodthere staring in a sort of stupor at what they thought was the biggest bomb in all the world falling out ofthe sky on to their heads. a few women screamed. others knelt down on the sidewalks and beganpraying aloud. strong men turned to one another and said things like, ‘i guess this is it, joe,’ and‘good-bye, everybody, good-bye.’ and for the next thirty seconds the whole city held its breath,waiting for the end to come.

三十五

仙桃来回翻滚着，倒着个儿，垂直朝地面掉下去。人们都拼命抓住桃把，怕给甩到空中去。

仙桃往下落得越来越快。它落呀，落呀，落呀，急速地接近底下的房屋和街道。毫无疑问，无论它落到哪里，哪里就肯定会被砸成碎片。从第五大街一直到麦迪逊大街，以及市里别的大街上，还没有进入地下掩体的人们，都抬起头来，望着仙桃朝下降落。他们停住脚步，痴呆呆地站在那里，盯着自己认为是世界上最大的炸弹，从半空中朝他们脑袋上砸下来。几个女人尖声叫起来。别的人跪在人行道上，大声祷告着。坚强的男人彼此转脸相对，说着诸如“我可是到了末日啦，乔！”或者“再见！所有的人！再见吧！”之类的话。接下来的三十秒钟，全城都屏住呼吸，等待着末日的到来。