"Scott Bradfield - Dazzle Redux" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bradfield Scott)

SCOTT BRADFIELD

DAZZLE REDUX

DESPITE ALL THE BURRS and bad weather, Dazzle lived a good life in the woods. He
ate plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables, learned to take one day at a time, and
raised the gangly pups of his common-law wife Edwina with as much genuine
affection as if they were his very own. There were times, however, when Dazzle
found that being a decent father figure took more patience than he could muster.
And no matter how hard he tried to restrain himself, he couldn't stop telling
everybody what to do.

"No, no, no," Dazzle told the twins for about the zillionth time that morning.
"Let's try it again, okay? This is a rectangle. This is a rhomboid. And this is
a circle." Dazzle sketched the shapes in the powdery red dirt as he spoke them,
trying to show the twins that geometry was as graspable as any bone, stick or
rock. "Okay, Heckle, let's pretend I've sent you on a top-secret assignment.
You're supposed to go down to the Land of Men and bring me a Frisbee. Have you
got that, Heckle? Do you know what a Frisbee is?"

Heckle, who had been warming his cold nose under the nippled convexity of sister
Jeckle's gravid belly, sat up with a start. He licked his wet lips hungrily.

"Just show me that Frisbee," Heckle snapped. "I'll whip that sucker out of the
sky, no problem."

"Okay, boy," Dazzle continued. "Now take a deep breath and look at the three
shapes I've drawn. And tell me -- which one's the shape of a Frisbee? Show me
the circle. The circle is the shape of a Frisbee. Point to the circle and you
win the game."

Dazzle spoke evenly in short compact sentences, as if he were marking a trail
with bright red beads. But no matter how clearly Dazzle pointed the way, Heckle
never managed to keep up for very long.

"A circle is like a Frisbee?" Heckle wondered out loud, mewling and starting to
twitch. "But not a Frisbee, really? A circle's a space on the ground when a
Frisbee's not there? So what the hell do I want with a circle, anyway? Why can't
I have a Frisbee instead?"

"You're thinking too hard, Heckle," Dazzle warned. "Relax, take a deep breath,
and point to the circle. You can do it, boy. So do it for me now."

"This is not the Frisbee!" Heckle declared with a pounce. "Here it's not! This
isn't it here!" Heckle was so slavery with confusion he looked as if he had just
chewed a frog. Within moments he had pawed the rhomboid completely out of
existence -- both metaphorically and literally.