"Thomas M. Disch M - Descending" - читать интересную книгу автора (Disch Thomas M)

pocket for a coin.

тАФHeads a new suit; tails the Sky Room.

Tails.

The Sky Room on 15 was empty of all but a few women chatting over coffee and
cakes. He was able to get a seat by a window. He ordered from the ├а la carte
side of the menu and finished his meal with espresso and baklava. He handed
the waitress his credit card and tipped her fifty cents.

Dawdling over his second cup of coffee, he began Vanity Fair. Rather to his
surprise, he found himself enjoying it. The waitress returned with his card
and a receipt for the meal.

Since the Sky Room was on the top floor of Underwood's there was only one
escalator to take nowтАФDescending. Riding down, he continued to read Vanity
Fair. He could read anywhereтАФin restaurants, on subways, even walking down the
street. At each landing he made his way from the foot of one escalator to the
head of the next without lifting his eyes from the book. When he came to the
Bargain Basement, he would be only a few steps from the subway turnstile.

He was halfway through Chapter VI (on page 55, to be exact) when he began to
feel something amiss.

тАФHow long does this damn thing take to reach the basement?

He stopped at the next landing, but there was no sign to indicate on what
floor he was, nor any door by which he might re-enter the store. Deducing from
this that he was between floors, he took the escalator down one more flight,
only to find the same perplexing absence of landmarks.

There was, however, a water fountain, and he stooped to take a drink.

тАФI must have gone to a sub-basement. But this was not too likely after all.
Escalators were seldom provided for janitors and stockboys.

He waited on the landing watching the steps of the escalators slowly descend
toward him and, at the end of their journey, telescope in upon themselves and
disappear. He waited a long while, and no one else came down the moving
steps.

тАФPerhaps the store had closed. Having no wristwatch and having rather lost
track of the time, he had no way of knowing. At last, he reasoned that he had
become so engrossed in the Thackeray novel that he had simply stopped on one
of the upper landingsтАФsay, on 8тАФto finish a chapter and had read on to page 55
without realizing that he was making no progress on the escalators.

When he read, he could forget everything else.