"Philip Jose Farmer - Flesh" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

A detachment of the White House Honor Guard left their posts to straighten matters out. The tall girls
marched from the porch, their high conical helmets shining in the torchlight, long hair hanging down their
backs, their white robes gleaming. They carried their bows in one hand and an arrow in the other. Unlike
the rest of the virgins in the city ofWashington, they exposed only one breast, the left. The robe
concealed the otherтАФor, rather, the lack of the other. Traditionally, a White House archer gladly allowed
her breast to be removed so it would not interfere with her handling of the bow. The lack was no
disadvantage in getting a husband when she retired. Tonight, after the Sunhero planted the seed of divinity
in them, they could have their choice of men to marry. A man whose wife had been a one-breasted
Honor Guard was a proud man.

The captain of the Honor Guard sternly asked about the disturbance. After hearing both chiefs out,
she said, тАЬThis is the first time matters have ever been so badly arranged. Perhaps we need a new John
Barleycorn!тАЭ

She pointed the arrow in her hand at the chief of the Elk frat.

тАЬYou will take the lead in the parade. And you and your brothers will have the honor of bringing out
the Sunhero.тАЭ

The chief of the Moose frat was either a brave man or a foolish man. He protested. тАЬI was out
drinking with the Barleycorn last night, and he told me the Moose would have the honor! I demand to
know why the Elks have been chosen instead of us!тАЭ

The captain stared coldly at him, and then fitted the nock of her arrow to the string of her bow. But
she was too well trained in politics to shoot one of the powerful Moose frat.

тАЬThe Barleycorn must have been possessed with spirits other than those the Goddess gives him,тАЭ she
said. тАЬIt has been planned for some time that the Elks would escort the Sunhero to the Capitol. Is not the
Sunhero a stag? IsnтАЩt he Stagg? You know that a male Elk is a stag, but a male Moose is a bull!тАЭ

тАЬThat is true,тАЭ said the chief Moose, pale from the moment the arrow had been fitted. тАЬI should not
have listened to John Barleycorn. But it normally would have been the turn of the Moose. Last year it
was the Lions, and the year before it was the Lambs. We should have been next.тАЭ

тАЬAnd so you would have beenтАФexcept for that.тАЭ

She pointed behind him downPennsylvania Avenue.

He turned to look. The street ran straight for six blocks from the White House and then ended
suddenly in a towering baseball stadium. Rising even over it was the shining needle shape of a craft that
had not been seen for seven hundred and sixty years. Not until a month ago, when it had come
thundering and flaming out of the late November skies and settled in the center of the ball park.

тАЬYou are right,тАЭ said the chief Moose. тАЬNever before has the Sunhero descended to us from the
skies, sent by the Great White Mother Herself. And, certainly, She made it clear what frat he honors by
being its brother when She named him Stagg.тАЭ

He marched away at the head of his men and just in time.

There was a scream from the Capitol, now only six blocks away from the White House. The scream