"Jack Dann - Art Appreciation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dann Jack)

toward the door. Now for the first time the guards seemed to take an interest; they
peered in.
тАЬOne moment,тАЭ Evans said. тАЬUno momento, I have to tell you something. I
wanted to say how beautiful you are. YouтАЩre a whole gallery in yourself.тАЭ
The woman turned, as if ready to break into a full run. At least IтАЩve saved her,
Evans thought. This is a dangerous situation, very perilous, hardly explicable, but at
least I got her out of this.
тАЬSo listen to me,тАЭ he said. тАЬBefore you go away, before you talk to the guard,
before you complain, youтАЩve got to understand my angle here. ItтАЩs not just because
youтАЩre beautiful. ItтАЩs because -- тАЬ
Obviously, he had not put this the right way. She ran away, the red and brown
handbag flapping like a decapitated bird. The guards were crooning to one another,
then seemed to make a collective decision: They advanced.
Evans reversed his course, backed, moved toward the painting. There was
simply nowhere else to go. тАЬHold it,тАЭ a guard said, тАЬjust hold it right there, pal, we
want to talk to you.тАЭ Talk did not seem to be properly in his mind, however. The
guard seemed enormous, a club extended like a baton from his right hand. He was
conducting the others into a massed assault.
тАЬOh, damn,тАЭ Evans said hopelessly. He scuttled toward the painting. On his
right shoulder, then, he could feel a burning touch, a grasp of enormous assurance
and power and then smoothly, inevitably, he felt himself moved upwards. Glug, he
thought. Glop. He was too high now to see the guards or to judge their reactions. He
seemed quite out of control; and yet, at the center was an awful certainty.
He felt the pressure and the wind as he was drawn.
You donтАЩt understand, he thought. тАЬYou donтАЩt understand,тАЭ he wanted to say
to the guards. He wanted to explain somehow, tell them about the fleeting, righteous
woman, the vanished jogger, all of the vanished women of his Yellow and Blue
periods; but the words would not come. тАЬThis is dangerous,тАЭ he wanted to say.
тАЬThis is a dangerous place. I just wanted to save her, canтАЩt you understand that?тАЭ
тАЬItтАЩs not lust, itтАЩs humanity,тАЭ he wanted to say.
Glop.
 No, it seemed that they could not understand that. Evans was plunged into a
clinging darkness, damp, cold certainty pressing around him and then, shocking, he
was falling. I wonder if thereтАЩ anything down there, he thought. I always wanted to
see Venice in its seasons, see the colors of the old Renaissance. Maybe thatтАЩs
waiting for me, maybe the others are waiting there, too, he thought. He thought many
other thing as well, but they do not fall into the scope of this present narrative. He is
still thinking. He will be thinking for long time.
Alas, those further thoughts are not to be recorded.
He is not on exhibition, not exactly.
Evans is on permanent loan.