"EB - Edward L. Ferman - The Best From Fantasy & Science Fiction 23rd EditionUC - SS" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fantasy & Science Fiction Magazine)

I turn to leave and meet Stella in the hall. The top of her head comes only to my shoulders, and so she has to tilt her face up to
88
Edward Bryant
glare at me. She says, "You're not going to be working for any promoter in the business. New York says so."
"Fine," I say. I walk past her.
Before I reach the door, she stops me by saying, "The initial report is in already."
I turn. "And?"
"The verdict will probably end up accidental death. Everybody's bonded. Jain was insured for millions. Everything will turn out all right for everyone." She stares at me for several seconds. "Except Jain. You bastard."
We have our congruencies.
The package comes later, along with a stiff legal letter from a firm of attorneys. The substance of the message is this: "Jain Snow wished you to have possession of this. She informed you prior to her demise of her desires; please carry them out accordingly." The packet contains a chrome cylinder with a screw cap. The cylinder contains ashes; ashes and a few bone fragments. I check. Jain's ashes, unclaimed by father, friends, or employer.
I drive west, away from the soiled towers of the strip-city. I drive beyond the colstrip pits and into the mountains until the paved highway becomes narrow asphalt and then rutted earth and then only a trace, and the car can go no further. With the metal cylinder in one hand I flee on foot until I no longer hear sounds of city or human beings.
At last the trees end and I climb over bare mountain grades. I rest briefly when the pain in my lungs is too sharp to ignore. At last I reach the summit.
I scatter Jain's ashes on the wind.
Then I hurl the empty cylinder down toward the timberline; it rolls and clatters and finally is only a distant glitter on the talus slope.
"Jain!" I scream at the sky until my voice is gone and vertigo destroys my balance. The echoes die. A s Jain died.
\ He down unpeacefullyЧexhaustedЧand sleep, and my dreams are of weathered stone. And I awake empty.
From Competition 1$:
Examples of sf titles that have been retranslated back into English after appearing in a French history ofsf.
I Am Crying, Said the Policeman, PHILIP K. DICK
He Has a Hole in His Head and His Teeth Glow in the Dark, ROGER
ZELAZNY
Nocturnal and Diurnal Animals, ROGER ZELAZNY R Is for Spaceship, RAY BRADBURY The Tin Men Go to Sleep, ISAAC ASIMOV All Animals Are Vegetables, CLIFFORD SIMAK
ЧCambridge University Science Fiction Society
A Box of Scruples, JAMES BLISH
Dendrites, LESTER DEL REY
Get Out of My Way! Get Out of My Way!, HARRY HARRISON
A For Whatever, DAMON KNIGHT
Humaner, THEODORE STURGEON
A Serious Undertaking, HAL CLEMENT
-Chris Riesbeck
Towards Here Is Coming An Evil Thing, RAY BRADBURY
Rascal Moon, ALOIS BUDRYS
To Your Broadcast Bodies, Get Yourselves, PHILIP JOSE FARMER
Tales of A Moribund Bird, HARLAN ELLISON
Farther Than Apollo, BARRY MALZBERG
-Michael Bishop
90
Sturgeon Lives Comfortably, THEODORE STURGEON Mr. Robot, That's Me, ISAAC ASIMOV
GutS, LESTER DEL REY
We Sold Space, POHL & KORKBLUTH Shove Over! Shove Over!, HARRY HARRISON
Don't Ask, Dragoon, GORDON DICKSON A Bit Unclear, H, BEAM PIPER Not That One, TOM TRYON
ЧDarnel P. Dern
ЧJohn Bittingsley
Here is yet another treat from the master of the contemporary chiller. And speaking of chills, Robert Bloch's latest book is a collection of scary stories published by Doubleday and titled Cold Chills.
Nina
by ROBERT BLOCK
After the love-making Nolan needed another drink.
He fumbled for the bottle beside the bed, gripping it with a sweaty hand. His entire body was wet and clammy, and his fingers shook as they unscrewed the cap. For a moment Nolan wondered if he was coming down with another bout of fever. Then, as the harsh heat of the rum scalded his stomach, he realized the truth.
Nina had done this to him,
Nolan turned and glanced at the girl who lay beside him. She stared up through the shadows with slitted eyes unblinking above high cheekbones, her thin brown body relaxed and immobile. Hard to believe that only moments ago this same body had been a writhing, wriggling coil of insatiable appetite, gripping and enfolding him until he was drained and spent.