"R. A. Lafferty - Melchisedek 02 - Tales of Midnight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

"Were you drinking before you joined us tonight, Duffey?" Charley
Murray asked him.
"Oh, I've been making a day of it, Charley. There was once a
proposed -- but never used -- Anheuser-Busch ad which read: 'After all, what
else was there to do in St. Louis?' I've been to all the places and enjoyed
all the drinks. -- Um -- down to King Stephen of Hungary and Conrad the
Second of the Germanies. I believe that they were the newest ones who came
to the Kings' Conclaves whthe I still attended. What, Charley, are you
implying that I might be intoxicated by other than life itself? I thouht
that my powers had revived a bit today, and you think that it was only my
drinking? But I can still work my golden magic. I can rub my hands together
and then pour out anything you wash me to on this library table here. See, I
rub my hands together! What do you want me to pour out here?"
"Coined gold," Patrick Stranahan said. "Dated coined gold."
"Any particular date, Patrick?"
"No. I'll not limit you there, Duffey. I know that magic was easily
wilted by excess details."
"You will notice that my hands are empty and my sleeves are rolled
up," Duffey said.
"Get with it, Duff, get with it," Papa Piccone said. "I have a new
magician every week at the S & G. You'll do nothing I haven't seen before."
Duffey rubbed his hands together some more. Then he poured seven
gold pieces out on the table. And Patrick Stranahan and the others examined
them.
"These are all United States Five Dollar Gold Pieces," Patrick said,
"and all of them were minted about ten years ago. You could easily have had
them on you, God knows why. And I recall that you used to do magic tricks."
"No, no, it was Charley Murray here who used to do magic tricks,"
Duffey said. "I used to do magic. I could have poured anything you asked me
out of my hands, a baby dinosaur, for instance. I'd have done that if you'd
asked me to. Now I won't."
"I made a man once," Papa Piccone said suddenly. Papa was named
Gaetano, but nobody ever called him anything except Papa. "I don't believe
that it was a metaphorical man. Right at the end of it, at least, before he
broke up, he was real. So I know that the thing can be done. I create a lot
of characters at my theatre the Star and Garter, at least one new one a week
for more than thirty years now. Some of these are classics and they will
live forever. Some of them are numb-bums and they do not have any validity
at all. Even a burlesque character must burlesque something that was valid,
something that was possible, something that was within the human spectrum.
It was only human thipgs that can be burlesqued. Inanimate things can't be
burlesqued, and animals can't be. Some of them, such as camels are natural
burlesques, but they cannot be burlesqued further.
"One of my worst failures was Oliver Oscar Omygosh. He was bad. He
stuttered 'O---O---O---'. He had a big nose and a big rump, but neither of
them was the right shape to be funny. He had fiery red eyes. He wore size
fifteen shoes, and he was continually falling on his face. I was going to
drop Oliver Oscar as no good after the third day and night of him, but I got
a phone call after the late night performance. 'This was O-O-O-Oscar
O-O-O-Oliver -O-O-Omygosh,' some clown on the phone said. 'You hold me up to