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

from my eyes. But then it's in the eyes of all of them, males and females alike.
I try to approach her after the performance, but of course everybody else wants to, too. We do look at
each other, both of us half a head above the others.

I think how good we'd look, her pink next to my blue. She must know that, too.

After a bit I see I'm not going to get near her with all those admirers crowding around. I leave. I explore
the burrow. There isn't much more to it but the escape hatches. And I feel the need for air after all that
emotion.

But just as I come out, the call comes. Almost as beautiful as their singer's high notes. Some other singer
on guard duty. Sky alert. We all rush back in. After a moment we peek out to see what's going on.
Striped neck, striped tail, speckled underbelly тАж Quite beautiful, actually. Sky folk always are. Already
high, the flap, flap, flap. A baby shrieksтАФand shrieks and shrieks. Somewhere a mother calls out her
good-byeтАФcalls out her love. The shrieks get farther and farther away though the mother keeps calling
out long after it's useless. But it isn't as if we don't all expect this.




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It's over. Everybody comes out. Not a one stays inside. Back with my own we do the same. I mill
around with the others. We squeak and pat each other. We clack our teeth. It would be a perfect time
for another of the sky folk to get us. They would have to take a big one now that the little ones have all
been pushed back inside. Though if they're like our own, there's always one or two who find a way to
sneak out some back door.
She's there of course. They're still crowding around her. I wonder if I'll ever be able to get close. I ask
her name. "Lee-ah of the far north holes." "Ah, the far north hole's Lee-ah." A name equal to her bulk,
her poise, her tiny feet.

Everyone is still looking up. I step around them, working my way closer, patting shoulders as I pass the
others. I make sure my vest hides where my wings should be. Closer. Then close at last. I whisper.
"Lee-ah of the far north." She smilesтАФher beautiful smile, gnawing teeth showing in the front. I can see
she's glad to see me.

I say, "Except that I've met you and heard and seen your brilliance, a sad time."

"A sorrow." She raises her head as though to bare her throat to me. A good sign. Then says, "And you,
from where?"

I bare my throat, too, but I had hoped she wouldn't ask the important question so soon. If they're like us,
I have to come from far enough away from her north and yet not be from my own north. I say, "Also the
north, but the east of the north."

That's the truth. One step farther up from their north and I'd be at home with my own.

It must be all right, because she says, "I do love those from the east north." I know what she means by
that.