"Avram Davidson - The House the Blakeneys Built" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davidson Avram)

"Blakeneys or not Blakeneys, not from The House!"

Robert Hayakawa and his wife Shulamith came out of the forest, Ezra and
Mikicho with them. "Well, as I said," Robert observed, in his slow careful
way, "a road may end nowhere, going in one direction, but it's not likely it
will end nowhere, going in the other."

Shulamith sighed. She was heavy with child. "Tilled fields. I'm glad of that.
There was no sign of them anywhere else on the planet. This must be a new
settlement. But we've been all over thatтАФ" She stopped abruptly, so did they
all.

Ezra pointed. "A houseтАФ"

"It's more like a, well, what would you say?" Mikicho moved her mouth, groping
for a word. "A тАж a castle? Robert?"

Very softly, Robert said, "It's not new, whatever it is. It is very much not
new, don't you see, Shulamith. WhatтАФ?"

She had given a little cry of alarm, or perhaps just surprise. All four turned
to see what had surprised her. A man was running over the field towards them.
He stopped, stumbling, as they all turned to him. Then he started again, a
curious shambling walk. They could see his mouth moving after a while. He
pointed to the four, waved his hand, waggled his head.

"Hey," they could hear him saying. "A hey, a hey. Hey. Look to. Mum. Mum mum
mum. Oh, hey тАж"

He had a florid face, a round face that bulged over the eyes, and they were
prominent and blue eyes. His nose was an eagle's nose, sharp and hooked, and
his mouth was loose and trembling. "Oh, hey, you must be, mum, his name, what?
And she run off to follow him? Longlong. Jinnie! Thin Jinnie!
Childrenchildren, a hey?" Behind him in the field two animals paused before a
plow, switching their tails.

"Mikicho, look," said Ezra. "Those must be cows."

The man had stopped about ten feet away. He was dressed in loose, coarse
cloth. Again he waggled his head. "Cows, no. Oh, no, mum mum, freemartins,
elses. Not cows." Something occurred to him, almost staggering in its
astonishment. "A hey, you won't know me! Won't know me!" He laughed. "Oh. What
a thing. Strange Blakeneys. Old Red Tom, I say, me."

Gravely, they introduced themselves. He frowned, his slack mouth moving.
"Don't know them name," he said, after a moment. "No, a mum. Make them up,
like children, in the woods. Longlong. Oh, I, now! Runaway Little Bob. Yes,
that name! Your fatherfather. Dead, a hey?"

Very politely, very wearily, feelingтАФnow that he had stoppedтАФthe fatigue of