"Charles L. Harness-Lethary Fair" - читать интересную книгу автора (Harness Charles L)

Lethary Fair
by Charles L. Harness
This story copyright 1998 by Charles L. Harness.Reprinted by permission of Linn Prentiss.This copy
was created for Jean Hardy's personal use.All other rights are reserved. Thank you for honoring the
copyright.

Published by Seattle Book Company, www.seattlebook.com.




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1. The Alien Arrives

* * *


At about noon on the second day of July, 2198, (I quote from Constable Ned Packle's report)
Mistress Erithra Dollkin (age 83) had just emerged from Garshmeyer's Deli, where she had bought some
herbal tea, when she noted this strange shadow moving slowly on the sidewalk in front of the deli.
She looked up.
Some sort of vehicle was dropping down rapidly into the street right into the No Parking zone in front
of Garshmeyer's. It landed there with a hard clump.
That violation of a highly respected City Ordinance apparently not sufficing, the driver of the strange
vehicle (which was topless now, with the roof rolled back), after loosening his seat belt, took a moment
to adjust his clothing in such a way that he exposed his bare buttocks. Whereupon Mistress Dollkin
shrieked, dropped her bag of tea, and covered her eyes.
Constable Packle was just down the Square in O'Malley's Barber Shop. He heard Mistress Dollkin's
cry, and he rushed out, whereupon he observed her shaking finger and averted eyes. He listened two or
three times to her stammered accusation, and then stepped forward and arrested the surprised felon, who
had two heads.
Now, I think I can state it as a fact, the general citizenry of Lethary had never before seen a
two-headed person. Of course, there were those rumors about one of the old baron's freak descendants,
but that's all, just rumors. Yes, our two-headed visitor was a great novelty.
But mooning a respected citizen of Lethary while simultaneously parking illegally was just icing on the
criminal cake. For alas, in the Alien's precipitous descent (that's what he turned out to be-- an Alien) his
craft landed on Dr. Dennis Banchou, an aged Buddhist monk. When they got the craft lifted up and
hauled away, the old scientist-monk was dead.
Additionally, and perhaps of even greater concern to some, was what happened to Sara, a very
beautiful geisha android owned by the Sixtrees Bar-Del-O. Apparently she was routinely headed for
Garshmeyer's to pick up Percy Sixtree's lunch when she looked overhead just in time to get herself
knocked down and crushed.
Since the jail was just down the Square it was a simple matter for Constable Packle to march the
criminal over and lock him up.
The miscreant (who spoke a broken English-- which apparently he had picked up while orbiting the
planet)claimed his/their name(s) were "John-Claude Berg." At least that's what Ned finally made out, and
wrote in the police blotter. John was the head on the Alien's right, Claude was the other.
Me. My name is William Moncrief Whitmore. Call me Bill. Bachelor, age thirty-eight. I'm a lawyer,