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

the long, long walk, Robert Hayakawa said, "I'm afraid I don't know him. We
are not, I think, who you seem to think we are тАж might we go on to the house,
do you know?" His wife murmured her agreement, and leaned against him.

Old Red Tom, who had been gaping, seemed suddenly to catch at a word. "The
House! A hey, yes. Go on to The House. Good now. Mum."

They started off, more slowly than before, and Old Red Tom, having unhitched
his freemartins, followed behind, from time to time calling something
unintelligible. "A funny fellow," said Ezra.

"He talks so oddly," Mikicho said. And Shulamith said that all she wanted was
to sit down. ThenтАФ

"Oh, look," she said. "Look!"

"They have all come to greet us," her husband observed.

And so they had.
Nothing like this event had ever occurred in the history of the Blakeneys. But
they were not found wanting. They brought the strangers into The House, gave
them the softest chairseats, nearest to the burning; gave them cookingmilk and
cheesemeats and tatoplants. Fatigue descended on the newcomers in a rush; they
ate and drank somewhat, then they sank back, silent.

But the people of the house were not silent, far from it. Most of them who had
been away had now come back, they milled around, some gulping eats, others
craning and staring, most talking and talking and talkingтАФfew of them
mumbletalking, now that the initial excitement had ebbed a bit. To the
newcomers, eyes now opening with effort, now closing, despite, the people of
the house seemed like figures from one of those halls of mirrors they had read
about in social histories: the same faces, clothes, тАж but, ah, indeed, not the
same dimensions. EverywhereтАФflorid complexions, bulging blue eyes, protruding
bones at the forehead, hooked thin noses, flabby mouths.

Blakeneys.

Thin Blakeneys, big Blakeneys, little Blakeneys, old ones, young ones, male
and female. There seemed to be one standard model from which the others had
been stretched or compressed, but it was difficult to conjecture what this
exact standard was.

"Starside, then," Young Big Mary saidтАФand said again and again, clearsound.
"No elses live to Blakeneyworld. Starside, Starside, a hey, Starside. Same as
Captains."

Young Whitey Bill pointed with a stick of burnwood at Shulamith. "Baby grows,"
he said. "Rower, rower. Baby soon."

With a great effort, Robert roused himself. "Yes. She's going to have a baby