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

she had known it and had tried to get between him and anything that would cause trouble. She had
succeeded, she thought, fairly well until three months ago when Eddie had eloped.
The girl was Polina Fameux, the ash blonde long-legged actress whose tridi image, taped, had been
shipped to all stars where a small acting talent and a large and shapely bosom were admired. Since Eddie
was a well known Metro baritone, the marriage made a big splash whose ripples ran around the civilized
Galaxy.
Dr. Fetts had felt very bad about the elopement, but she had, she knew, hidden her grief very well
beneath a smiling mask. She didn't regret having to give him up; after all, he was a full-grown man, no
longer her little boy; but, really, aside from the seasons at the Met and his tours, he had not been parted
from her since he was eight.
That was when she went on a honeymoon with her second husband. And then they'd not been
separated long, for Eddie had gotten very sick, and she'd had to hurry back and take care of him, as he
had insisted she was the only one who could make him well.
Moreover, you couldn't count his days at the opera as being a total loss, for he vised her every noon
and they had a long talkтАФno matter how high the vise bills ran.
The ripples caused by her son's marriage were scarcely a week old before they were followed by
even bigger ones. They bore the news of the separation of the two. A fortnight later, Polina applied for
divorce on the grounds of incompatibility. Eddie was handed the papers in his mother's apartment. He
had come back to her the day he and Polina had agreed they "couldn't make a go of it," or, as he
phrased it to his mother, "couldn't get together."
Dr. Fetts was, of course, very curious about the reason for their parting, but as she explained to her
friends, she "respected" his silence. What she didn't say was that she had told herself the time would
come when he would tell her all. Eddie's "nervous breakdown" started shortly afterwards. He had
become very irritable, moody, and depressed, but he got worse the day a so-called friend told Eddie that
whenever Polina heard his name mentioned, she laughed loud and long. The friend added that Polina had
promised to tell someday the true story of their brief merger.
That night his mother had to call in a doctor.
In the days that followed, she thought of giving up her position as research pathologist at De Kruif
and taking up all her time to help him "get back on his feet." It was a sign of the struggle going on in her
mind that she had not been able to decide within a week's time. Ordinarily given to swift consideration
and resolution of a problem, she could not agree to surrender her beloved quest into tissue regeneration.
Just as she was on the verge of doing what was for her the incredible and the shameful: tossing a
coin, she had been vised by her superior. He told her she had been chosen to go with a group of
biologists on a research cruise to ten pre-selected planetary systems.

About the Author
PHILIP FARMER'S first published story, THE LOVERS, which ran as the lead novel in
STARTLING STORIES for August, 1952, created an unparalleled furore in science-fiction
circles. Before the magazine was a day old, a book firm had signed Farmer to a contract for
THE LOVERS and a sequel still to be written, plus a third novel only in the planning stage.
The sequel will appear, naturally, in STARTLING STORIES; meanwhile Farmer is hard at
work on shorts and novelets of assorted lengths. We are happy to have given the initial boost
to a fine and growing talent. Here is his second storyтАФa difficult theme handled with rare and
outstanding honesty.
тАФThe Editor

Overjoyed, she had thrown away the papers that would turn Eddie over to a sanitorium. And, since
he was quite famous, she had used her influence and his good name to get the government to allow him to
go along. Ostensibly, he was to make a survey of the development of opera on planets colonized by
Terrans. That the yacht was not visiting any colonized globes seemed to have been missed by the bureaus