"Horace Gold - Inside Man & Other Science Fiction Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gold Horace)

"Yeah," he said. "It's frustrating, but you're right. Why can't Miss ZeichnerтАУ"
"Oh, she'll learn, darling. Just give her time."
"Hah!" he said. "Why, you wouldn't believe it, butтАУ"
"The menu," she told him firmly. "And the messenger."
***
"Well, look, damn it," Les argued the next morning, waiting for an elevator with
Thalia in the Medical Building. "Just because I didn't get the Fitch account is no
reason to haul me to a psychiatrist!"
"Lower your voice. People are looking," she shushed. "It isn't that and you know it,
darling."
"You mean Mrs. Fitch's watch? Well, there were two damaged jewels in it!"
"But to take it off her wrist right in the middle of dinner and go racing out in search
of a jeweler at that time of nightтАУ"
"I got one, didn't I? And he saw the cracked one on the top and put up a battle when
I hold him about the chipped one underneath, but he took the watch apart and sure
enoughтАУ"
"Yes, darling. I know. That's not what's important."
The elevator door opened and they got in.
"Then what is?" challenged Les.
She glanced at the elevator operator and whispered, "What you told me after Mr.
Fitch said they couldn't wait any longer for you to get back and to send the watch тАУ
Les! You're not listening!"
But he was. He was listening very hard.
"The poor thing," he said, shaking his head sadly.
She looked around. Except for the operator, they were alone in the elevator.
"Who?" she asked.
"The elevator. When are people going to learn that too much oilтАУ"
"That's what I mean, darling." She guided him across the corridor and opened the
door to a waiting room. Shakily she said. "Now there isn't a thing to worry about."
"Oh, no?" he snapped. 'With imbeciles and bunglers tormenting defenseless
machines that ask nothing more than to be done by as they do, living by the Golden
Rule, which is more than I sayтАУ"
"Mr. Shay?" inquired the nurse-receptionist at the desk. "You may go right in. Dr.
Hyde is expecting you."
"Dr. Hyde," snarled Les. "I bet he's got a silent partner named Mr. Jekyll."
He flung open the door and slammed it shut behind him.
With his hands behind his head, Les lay staring up at the ceiling, blinking once a
minute. Thalia inchwormed rapidly toward him until her head was under his chin.
"Darling?" she said in a very little voice.
He breathed slightly harder on her hair to show he was paying attention.
"You know, we've only been, married three months," she said, "and already we act
as if we'd grown old and gray together."
"Uh," he told her.
"Well, I don't feel old and gray." She paused. "Do you?"
'Um," he elaborated.
"You just lie there," she cried angrily. "Don't you give one single, solitary thought to
how тАУ how undesirable it makes me feel?"
He forced his throat to move, then his tongue, finally his lips, "You're not."
"Then whatтАУ" She stopped, was silent for a long moment. "I'm a heel," she said
against his chest. "You're trying to digest what Dr. Hyde said to you today."