"Delany, Samuel R - The Einstein Intersection 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Samuel R)

God said to Abraham, "Kill me a son." Abe said, "God, you must be puttin' me on!"
Bob Dylan/Highway 61 Revisited

Love is something which dies and when dead it rots and becomes soil for a new love . . . Thus in reality there is no death in love.
Par Lagerkvist/The Dwarf

"Le Dorik?" I said. "Dorik?"
"Hi," came a voice from the dark. "Lobey?"
"Lo Lobey," I said. "Where are you?"
"Just inside the kage."
"Oh. What's the smell?"
"Whitey," Dorik said. "Easy's brother. He died. I'm digging a grave. You remember Easy's brother-"
"I remember," I said. "I saw him by the fence yesterday. He looked pretty sick."
"That kind never last long. Come in and help me dig."
"The fence ..."
"It's off. Climb over."
"I don't like to go in the kage," I said.
"You never used to mind sneaking in here when we were kids. Come on, I've got to move this rock. Lend a foot."
"That was when we were kids," I said. "We did a lot of things when we were kids we don't have to do now. It's your job. You dig."
"Friza used to come in here and help me, tell me all about you."
"Friza used to..." Then I said, "Tell? "
"Well, some of us could understand her."
"Yeah," I said. "Some of us could."
I grabbed the wire mesh near the post but didn't start climbing.
"Actually," Dorik said, "I was always sort of sad you never came around. We used to have fun. I'm glad Friza didn't feel the way you did. We used to-"
"-to do a lot of things, Dorik. Yeah, I know. Look, nobody ever bothered to tell me you weren't a girl till I was fourteen, Dorik. If I hurt you, I'm sorry."
"You did. But I'm not. Nobody ever did get around to telling Friza I wasn't a boy. Which I'm sort of glad of. I don't think she would have taken it the same way you did, even so."
"She came here a lot?"
"All the time she wasn't with you."
I sprang over the wire, swung over the top, and dropped to the other side. "Where's that damn rock you're trying to move?"
"Here-"
"Don't touch me," I said. "Just show me."
"Here," Dorik repeated in the darkness.
I grabbed the edge of the stone shelved in the dirt. Roots broke, dirt whispered down, and I rolled the stone out. "How's the kid, by the way? " I asked.
I had to. And damn, Dorik, why were the next words the ones I was hurting with hoping I wouldn't hear?

"Which one?"
There was a shovel by the post I jammed it into the grave. Damn Le Dorik.
"Mine and Friza's," Dorik went on after a moment, "will probably be up for review by the doctors in another year. Needs a lot of special training, but she's pretty functional. Probably will never have a La, but at least she won't have to be in here."
"That's not the kid I meant" The shovel clanged on another rock.
"You're not asking about the one that's all mine." There were two or three pieces of ice in that sentence. Dorik flicked them at me, much on purpose. "You mean yours and mine." As if you didn't know, you androgynous bastard. "He's in here for life, but he's happy. Want to go see him-"
"No." Three more shovelsful of dirt. "Let's bury Whitey and get out of here."
"Where are we going?"
"La Dire, she said you and me have to take a trip together to destroy what killed Friza."
"Oh," Dorik said. "Yes," Dorik went over to the fence, bent down. "Help me."
We picked up the bloated, rubbery corpse and carried it to the hole. It rolled over the edge, thumping.
"You were supposed to wait till I came for you," Dorik said.
"Yeah. But I can't wait. I want to go now."
"If I'm going with you, you're waiting."
"Why?"