"Brooks, Terry - Landover 01 - Magic Kingdom for Sale - Sold" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brooks Terry)

mered through the evening gray, distant and solitary, each
a source of life separate and apart from the thousands of
others.

We are so much of the time alone, he thought. Wasn't it
strange?

He looked down again at the catalogue. Why do you sup-
pose they had sent it to Annie? Why were companies always
sending mailers and flyers and free samples and God-knew-
what-all to people long after they were dead and buried? It
was an intrusion on their privacy. It was an affront. Didn't
these companies update their mailing lists? Or was it simply
that they refused ever to give up on a customer?

He checked his anger and, instead, smiled, bitter, ironic.
Maybe he should phone it all in to Andy Rooney. Let him
write about it.

He turned on the lights then and walked over to the wall
bar to make himself a scotch, Glenlivet on the rocks with a
splash of water; he measured it out and sipped at it exper-
imentally. There was a bar meeting in a little less than two
hours, and he had promised Miles that he would make this
one. Miles Bennett was not only his partner, but he was
probably his only real friend since Annie's death. All of the
others had drifted away somehow, lost in the shufflings and
rearrangings of life's social order. Couples and singles made

4 MAGIC KINGDOM FOR SALE - SOLD!

a poor mix, and most of their friends had been couples. He
hadn't done much to foster continuing friendships in any
case, spending most of his time involved with his work and
with his private, inviolate grief. He was not such good com-
pany anymore, and only Miles had had the patience and the
perseverance to stay with him.

He drank some more of the scotch and wandered back
again to the open windows. The lights of the city winked
back at him. Being alone wasn't so bad, he reasoned. That
was just the way of things. He frowned. Well, that was his
way, in any case. It was his choice to be, alone. He could
have found companionship again from any one of a number
of sources; he could have reintegrated himself into almost
any of the city's myriad social circles. He had the necessary
attributes. He was young still and successful; he was even
wealthy, if money counted for anythingЧand in this world
it almost always did. No, he didn't have to be alone.