"Samuel R. Delany - The Star Pit" - читать интересную книгу автора (Delaney Samuel R)

was that tired, or the heavens he's soared through screaming! Oh, the things he told us about! And
Alegra made them almost real so we could all be there again, just like she used to do when she was a
psychiatrist! The stories, the places, the things . . ."

"Sounds like it was really something."

"It was nothing!" he came back vehemently. "It was all in the tears that wash your eyes, in the humming in
your ears, in the taste of your own saliva. It was just a hallucination, Vyme! It wasn't real." Here his voice
started cracking between the two octaves that were after it. "But that thing I told you about . . . huge . . .
alive and dead at the same time, like a star . . . way in another galaxy. Well, he's seen it. And last night,
but it wasn't real of course, but ... I almost heard it ... singing!" His eyes were huge and green and bright.
I felt envious of anyone who could pull this reaction from kids like Alegra and Ratlit.

"So, we decidedтАФ" his voice fixed itself on the proper side of middle C "тАФafter he went back to sleep,
and we lay awake talking a while longer, that we'd try and help him get back out there. Because it's . . .
wonderful!"

"That's fascinating." When I finished my call, I stood up from the desk. I'd been sitting on the corner.
"After work I'll buy you dinner and you can tell me all about the things he showed you."

"He's still there, at Alegra's," Ratlit saidтАФhelplessly, I realized after a moment. "I'm going back there right
after work."

"Oh," I said. I didn't seem to be invited.

"It's just a shame," Ratlit said when we came out of the office, "that he's so stupid." He glanced at the
mess staining the concrete and shook his head.



I'd gone back to the books when Sandy stepped in. "All finished. What say we knock off for a beer or
something, huh, boss?"

"All right," I said, surprised. Sandy was usually as social as he was handsome. "Want to talk about
something?"

"Yeah." He looked relieved.

"That business this morning got to your head, huh?"

"Yeah," he repeated.

"There is a reason," I said as I made ready to go. "It's got something to do with the psychological part of
being a golden. Meanness and stupidity, like everyone says. But however it makes them act here, it
protects them from complete insanity at the twenty thousand light-year limit."

"Yeah. I know, I know." Sandy had started stepping uncomfortably from one boot to the other. "But
that's not what I wanted to talk about."

"It isn't?"