"Carol Emshwiller - Gliders Though They Be" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emshwiller Carol)

become Us.
I hum a tune I know is theirsтАФI think is theirsтАФwe always said it was theirs, but what do we really
know of them? By the looks of their one-tree land, even less than we thought.

They must have been the right things to do because a large female evaluates me carefully. She has a
reddish cast, pink eyes, lashes as long as her whiskers. Each eyelash and each whisker has three colors,
brown, white, and pink. Even though she's one of theirs, she's superb.

With my own, I'd chitter or some such, but I don't know what works with them. And I don't want to
spark any jealousy among their males or attract attention to myself. But I do clack my teeth a few times.

Females are larger than males, and she is one of their largest. But they're not fighters. They're no good for
anything but having children. If cornered or if any little ones are in danger, even if not their own, they
become much worse than any male could ever be, but I doubt that fighting will be called for if, when I
cut, I do it out of sight.




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WeтАФI and the hunting groupтАФadvance toward the center of the compound. When we're not far from
their tree, I leave the group and enter a burrowтАФup the lookout mound of loose dirt at the doorway and
then down, down, down. Just like home.
Soon I hear singing coming from below. Female singing. When I get deeper and closer, I stop and listen.
You have to be born to their kind of music to understand it. Same with their kind of dancing (head
bobbing up and downтАФexactly like a lizard trying to attract a female). Bla, bla, bla goes their poetry. But
as I listen to the song, I can tell there's a pattern to it, and the voice is delightful: squeaky and shrill. Were
it used as a warning signal, there's none who'd not hear and obey. I feel shivers up and down my spine.

They told me, go ahead, love. Might be the best way to hide. And the best way to find out whether it's
our only way to survive. They said, "Some of us, as you are, are handsome and bold. Do whatever it
takes. Become them as best you can."

Almost all our compounds have gone over to their side. It may be that we have nothing else to do but
pretend we're them, except we don't know how. The how, is my job. (Along with the cutting, which will
make them more like Us.)

I step closer and around the corner so I can see. There's a large room hollowed out and the floor
covered with glittery jay feathers. What a singer she is! I can hardly believe her high notes. Higher than
I've ever heard. Out in the open air her song would carry for miles. I don't doubt but that I may have
heard her screeches as far away as from our own land. And what a remarkable size to her! Except for
her pink, you'd think she was one of ours. Her wings lie, folded under her arms. They glisten in the glow
of the burrow. I wonder, at her size, can she really glide? We've heard that sometimes their females get
so big they can no more glide than we can.

I flatten my fur to give it more glow. I enter boldly. Everyone has squatted down, but I stand in the
backтАФand stare. I can't help it. Even if I didn't want to, I couldn't not stareтАФher legs so delicate, her
feet so small, the bulk of her, her front teeth that peep out as she sings. I wonder if how I feel shines out