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

I washed the wet stuff off his face, and scraped the dry stuff from beneath it which had been there at least
two days. Then I got some antibiotic into him.

"You smell funny, Da."

"Never mind how I smell. Let's go outside again." I put down a cup of black coffee too fast, and it and
my hangover had a fight in my stomach. I tried to ignore it and do a little looking around. But I still
couldn't find anybody. That got me mad. I mean he's independent, sure: he's mine. But he's only two.
Back on the beach we buried the dead sloth in sand; then I pointed out the new, glittering stalks of the
tiny crystal plants. At the bottom of the pond, in the jellied mass of aniwort eggs, you could see the
tadpole forms quivering already. An orange-fringed shelf fungus had sprouted nearly eight inches since it
had been just a few black spores on a pile of dead leaves two weeks back.

"Grow up," Antoni chirped with nose and fists against the plastic. "Everything grow up, and up."

"That's right."

He grinned at me. "I grow!"

"You sure as hell do."

"You grow?" Then he shook his head, twice: once to say no, and the second time because he got a kick
from shaking his hair around тАФthere was a lot of it. "You don't grow. You don't get any bigger. Why
don't you grow?"

"I do too," I said indignantly. "Just very slowly."

Antoni turned around, leaned on the plastic and moved one toe at a time in the sandтАФI can't do
thatтАФwatching me.

"You have to grow all the time," I said. "Not necessarily get bigger. But inside your head you have to
grow, kid-boy. For us human-type people that's what's important. And that kind of growing never stops.
At least it shouldn't. You can grow, kid-boy, or you can die. That's the choice you've got, and it goes on
all of your life."

He looked back over his shoulder. "Grow up, all the time, even if they can't get out."

"Yeah," I said. And was uncomfortable all over again. I started pulling off my overalls for something to
do. "EvenтАФ" The zipper got stuck. "God damn it!тАФif you can't get out." RnrnrnrnrnrnтАФit came loose.

The rest got back that evening. They'd been on a group trip around the foot of the mountain. I did a little
shouting to make sure my point got across about leaving Antoni alone. Didn't do much good. You know
how family arguments go: He didn't want to come. We weren't going to forceтАФSo what. He's got to
learn to do things he doesn't wantтАФLike some other people I could mention! Now lookтАФIt's a healthy
group. Don't you want him to grow up a healthyтАФ I'll be happy if he just grows up period. No food, no
medicalтАФ But the server was chock full of food. He knows how to use itтАФLook, when I got home the
kid's arm was swollen all the way up to his elbow!

And so on and so forth, with Antoni sitting in the middle, looking confused. When he got confused