"John DeChancie - Castle 08 - Bride of the Castle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dechancie John)

halfconceived nightmares. "I don't understand . . ."
"It's all so simple," Jeremy Hochstader said. "Let me ask you this. If you had to state your main problem
in twenty-five words or less, how would it go?"
Max's thoughts drifted back to the endless hours of psychotherapy, of soul-searching, of futile digging at
the root of his problems.
"Easy. I'm a total failure. Everything I've ever tried or ever done has come to doodly squat."
"Yeah, I figured," Jeremy said. "I can empathize with that. My life's the same way, or would have been if
I hadn't discovered the castle. The castle is a fun place to live, don't get me wrong, but there's one thing
that's wrong with it."
"What?"
"It's not Earth. It's not home. I initially got the idea of searching for another Earth that was even better
than the one I was born in. So I de-tuned the Earth portal, tried different tunings, each just a couple of
decimal points off. At first I couldn't find any differences at all, until I heard a news broadcast. There was
a different president, and he was the guy who was vice president in our world. The guy he replaced had a
sudden heart attack. And I got this other idea: people have better lives in some worlds than in others."
Max raised his shoulders. "So?"
"Well think of the possibilities. I discovered another thing, too. That most people are dissatisfied with
their lives. No matter how good they got it, they always want something different, they always think the
grass is greener on the other side of the road."
"Fence."
"Fence, whatever. Anyway-"
Max grabbed the kid's bony shoulder. "Look! What the hell does all this have to do with me? I want an
answer!"
Jeremy indignantly removed Max's hand. "Get your mitts off the merchandise. I'm getting to that, I'm
getting to that."
"Well, get to it!"
"Okay! Listen to me. What's the obvious cure, the thing that would make your life a lot better?"
"I don't know," Max said. "Don't you think if I knew that, I'd be doing it?"
"The cure is success! Nothing succeeds like success. Isn't that incredibly obvious?"
"No. Lack of success is a symptom."
"Bullshit." Hochstader crossed his legs sharply and sat back. "My brand of therapy is, like, real direct. If
a client is dissatisfied with his life, I give him a new one. Forget all that crap about early toilet training,
parents, arrested development, and the rest. There's nothing like a fresh start to wipe the slate clean.
You're a chronic failure, right? And every new botched thing only reinforces your sense of worthlessness,
making it all the more likely you'll fail again, and again, and again. It's, you know, a vicious circle."
"Cycle. Okay, I understand what you're saying, and there may even be some truth in it, but . . ."
Max thought about it. Hochstader's analysis made as much sense as any other he had heard. "But what's
this alternate world stuff got to do with breaking the cycle?"
"Real simple," Jeremy said. "By starting fresh from a base state of success and proceeding from there, we
turn the tables on the whole neurotic process. See, I do know something about psychology. I read a
couple of books." He waved a hand disdainfully. "Forget about what started the whole thing off. To hell
with the cause of the neurosis. Seems to me most of this psychotherapy stuff underestimates the factor of
chance in a patient's case history. Luck has something to do with it. We're all at the mercy of random
forces. It's a tricky universe, Max. And if you don't like the way things have worked out in your universe
of origin, you can slip over to a brand-new one."
"But how . . . ?" Max broke off, shaking his head.
"Don't try to figure it out all at once. I can only explain so much. Not I gotta show you. Just take it as it
comes. You'll understand everything in due time." Leaning forward to the cabbie, Jeremy said, "Turn right
at this next road."
"I just don't know," Max said, shaking his head. "This is all so nuts."