"Asimov, Isaac - Anniversary" - читать интересную книгу автора (Asimov Isaac)

Isaac Asimov -

Anniversary

The annual ritual was all set.

It was the turn of Moore's house this year, of course, and Mrs.
Moore and the children had resignedly gone to her mother's for the

Warren Moore surveyed the room with a faint smile. Only Mark
Brandon's enthusiasm kept it going at the first, but he himself had
come to like this mild remembrance. It came with age, he supposed;
twenty additional years of it. He bad grown paunchy, thin-haired,
soft-jowled, andЧworst of allЧsentimental.

So all the windows were polarized into complete darkness and
the drapes were drawn. Only occasional stipples of wall were illumi-
nated, thus celebrating the poor lighting and the terrible isolation of
that day of wreckage long ago.

There were spaceship rations in sticks and tubes on the table and,
of course, in the center an unopened bottle of sparkling green
Jabra water, the potent brew that only the chemical activity of
Martian fungi could supply.

Moore looked at his watch. Brandon would be here soon; he was
never late for this occasion. The only thing that disturbed him was
the memory of Brandon's voice on the tube: "Warren, I have a sur-
prise for you this tune. Wait and see. Wait and see."

Brandon, it always seemed to Moore, aged little. The younger
man had kept his slimness, and the intensity with which he greeted
all in life, to the verge of his fortieth birthday. He retained the
ability to be in high excitement over the good and in deep despair
over the bad. His hair was going gray, but except for that, when
Brandon walked up and down, talking rapidly at the top of his
voice about anything at all, Moore didn't even have to close his eyes
to see the panicked youngster on the wreck of the Silver Queen.

The door signal sounded and Moore kicked the release without
turning around. "Come, Mark."


It was a strange voice that answered, though; softly, tentatively,
"Mr. Moore?"

Moore turned quickly. Brandon was there, to be sure, but only in
the background, grinning with excitement. Someone else was stand-
ing before him; short, squat, quite bald, nut-brown and with the feel
of space about him.