"Samuel R. Delany - Corona" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Samuel R)

They went down on the floor together, he shouting, "No!" and the little
girl crying. Dr. Gross stood up, now panting.

She lay on the green vinyl, curling around the sound of her own sobs,
pulling her hands over the floor to press her stomach.
"Lee, isn't there any way you can understand this? Yes, you've been
exposed to more than any nine-year-old's mind should be able to bear.
But you've got to come to terms with it, somehow! That isn't the
answer, Lee. I wish I could back it up with something. If you let me
help, perhaps I can-"

She shouted, with her cheek pressed to the floor, "But you can't help!
Your thoughts, they're just as clumsy and imprecise as the others! How
can you-you help people who're afraid and confused because their own
minds have formed the wrong associations! How! I don't want to have
to stumble around in all your insecurities and fears as well! I'm not a
child! I've lived more years and places than any ten of you! Just go
away and let me alone-"

Rage, pain, and music.

"Lee-"

"Go away! Please!"

Dr. Gross, upset, swung the window closed, locked it, left the room,
locked the door.

Rage, pain ... below the chaos she was conscious of the infectious
melody of Corona. Somebody-not her-somebody else was being carried
into the hospital, drifting in the painful dark, dreaming over the same
sounds. Exhausted, still crying, she let it come.

The man's thoughts, she realized through her exhaustion, to escape the
pain had taken refuge in the harmonies and cadences of Corona. She
tried to hide her own mind there. And twisted violently away. There
was something terrible there. She tried to pull back, but her mind
followed the music down.

The terrible thing was that someone had once told him not to put his
knee on the floor.

Fighting, she tried to push it aside to see if what was underneath was
less terrible. ("Buddy, stop that whining and let you momma alone. I
don't feel good. Just get out of here and leave me alone!" The bottle
shattered on the door jamb by his ear, and he fled.) She winced. There
couldn't be anything that bad about putting your knee on the floor. And
so she gave up and let it swim toward her-