"Effinger, George Alec - Maureen Birnbaum 03 - Maureen Birnbaum at the Looming Awfulness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Effinger George Alec)

Finally, unable to withstand the fury of my psychological attack any longer, he
scrambled to his feet, uttered a long, ululating, despairing cry, and hurled
himself over the brink of the demonically gleaming well. I heard his shriek echo
from the walls for what seemed many minutes. With his last ounce of humanity,
Sandy had sacrificed himself for us.

Then there was like this silence, okay?

The floating paisleys had disappeared. The sense of foreboding gave way to,
well, boding. The permeating atmosphere of absolute evil lifted. Rod got to his
feet, shaking his head. "What . . . what happened?" he goes.

I took him by the hand. "Come along, dear," I go. "We have a long bike ride
home."

And that, pretty simply, is how I overcame the worst that the ancient,
amorphous, deathless, eldritch, gibbering gods of Elsewhere and Elsewhen threw
at me. I guess I'm just too solidly centered in Real Life to be driven crazy by
a bulbous and youldering octopoid. I figured I chased them all back to
Massachusetts, where they belonged.

So," she goes, "what do you think?"

"What do I think?" I go. "I think my life is over. I think my husband has left
me for his receptionist, I think my baby son doesn't have a father anymore, I
think I may have to move in with Mums and Daddy practically forever, and I think
I don't give a good goddamn what you do with your sword."

Muffy just stared at me for a moment. "Do you mean it?" she goes.

"Yeah, I mean it."

"I mean, like you've been testy before, God knows, but I could always count on
you, Bitsy."

"Elizabeth, please. Call me Elizabeth."

Muffy looked like a shelf of books had dumped on her head. "You'll get over it,"
she goes. "Sure, you will."

I dabbed at my nose with a tissue. "Go haunt somebody else for a while," I go.

She smiled sadly and shook her head. "I'm going to go find Rod Marquand and
we're going to continue our everlasting romance, and we're going to get married
and be happy forever, and I'm going to want you to be my matron of honor, so
you've got to get over this depression, Bitsy. C'mon, just cheer up!"

I almost threw a shoe at her, except I didn't have a shoe. She blew me a kiss,
walked out of my bedroom, and I haven't seen or heard from her since.