"R. A. Lafferty - Stories 2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lafferty R A)

have to be taken down and relayed to him.
He had to keep an eye on his other self, so he did renew one old
contact. With one firm in New York there was a man he had called on
regularly; this man had a cheerful and open mind that would not he spooked
by the unusual. Clem began to meet this man (Why should we lie about it? His
name was Joe Zabotsky.) not at the firm; but at an after-hours place which
he knew Joe frequented.
Joe heard Clem's story and believed it -- after he had phoned (in
Clem's presence) the other Clem, located him a thousand miles away, and
ordered an additional month's supply of the unique product which they didn't
really need, things being a little slow in all lines right then.
After that, Clem would get around to see Joe Zabotsky an average of
once a month, about the time he figured the other Clem had just completed
his monthly New York call.
"He's changing a little bit, and so are you," Joe told Clem one
evening. "Yeah, it was with him just about like with you. He did lose a lot
of weight a while back, what you call the critical day, and he gained it
back pretty quick just like you did. It bugs me, Clem, which of you I used
to know. There are some old things between us that he recalls and you don't;
there are some that you recall and he doesn't; and dammit there are some you
both recall, and they happened between myself and one man only, not between
myself and two men.
"But these last few months your face seems to be getting a little
fuller, and his a little thinner. You still look just alike, but not quite
as just-alike as you did at first."
"I know it," Clem said. "I study the analysts now since they don't
do any good at studying me, and I've learned an old analyst's trick. I take
an old face-on photo of myself, divide it down the center, and then complete
each half with its mirror image. It gives two faces just a little bit
different. Nobody has the two sides of his face quite alike. These two
different faces are supposed to indicate two different aspects of the
personality. I study myself, now, and I see that I am becoming more like one
of the constructions; so he must be becoming more like the other
construction. He mentions that there are disturbances between Veronica and
himself, does he? And neither of them quite understands what is the matter?
Neither do I."

Clem lived modestly, but he began to drink more than he had. He
watched, through his intermediary Joe and by other means, the doings of his
other self. And he waited. This was the most peculiar deal he had ever met,
but he hadn't been foxed on very many deals.
"He's no smarter than I am," Clem insisted. "But, by cracky, if he's
me, he's pretty smart at that. What would he do if he were in my place? And
I guess, in a way, he is."
Following his avocation of drinking and brooding and waiting, Clem
frequented various little places, and one day he was in the Two-Faced Bar
and Grill. This was owned and operated by Two-Face Terrel, a doubledealer
and gentleman, even something of a dandy. A man had just seated himself at a
dim table with Clem, had been served by Two-Face, and now the man began to
talk.