"Bradley Denton - One Day Closer to Death" - читать интересную книгу автора (Denton Bradley)

In college, I had a roommate who was convinced that he was not going to die, ever. He really
believed this, and whenever presented with an argument to the contrary (e.g., "You are a living thing,
and every other living thing in recorded history has, at some point, expired"), he would shrug and say,
"Not me, man." Then he'd go up to the attic and smoke a joint, after which he was even tougher to
argue with because he couldn't understand me unless I spoke in pig Latin.

So finally, I just got him to agree to a bet. If he actually did die someday, I would inherit his car
and deliver a pig Latin eulogy to his grieving relatives. And if he instead turned out to be immortal
(which, for the purposes of our bet, we defined as being 278 years old and still interested in girls), he
and his horde of descendants would play a game of Hacky Sack on my grave.

I've lost track of that roommate over the years, so I don't know for sure... but I suspect that I
can't claim the pink slip to his Volvo (or Yugo) just yet. However, I did hear a rumor that he had
become an income tax attorney. So you be the judge.

But regardless of his current condition, my bet with him is one I still feel confident of winning. I
don't have many rock-solid beliefs, but since early childhood I've never doubted that all creatures
have one defining characteristic in common:

We're temporary.

So maybe I shouldn't be surprised that all of my stories are about death. It's just that I've always
hoped they were about its antithesis.

I guess the stone truth, though, is that you don't get one without the other. The universe is a surly
short-order cook, and existence is a combination plate with no substitutions.

And while I'm not happy about that, I can put up with it. I don't think I could write any faster
anyway.

After all, I'm scared of life, too.

тАФBradley Denton

Manchaca, Texas

February 1997




Introduction to

"The Territory"
 You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of Wrack and Roll,
Buddy Holly Is Alive and Well on Ganymede, Blackburn, or Lunatics, but that ain't no matter.
Those books were made by Mr. Bradley Denton, and he lied, mainly. There was things which he
didn't stretch, but mainly he lied. That is nothing. I never seen anybody but lied, one time or another...

Sorry. Couldn't resist.