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

"Why did Matthew have two donkeys?" the man asked.
"Matthew who?" Clem asked. "I don't know what you're talking about."
I'm talking about 21:1-9, of course," the man said. The other
Gospels have only one donkey. Did you ever think about that?"
"No, I'd never given it a thought," Clem said.
"Well, tell me then, why does Matthew have two demoniacs?"
"What?"
"8:28-34. The other evangelists have only one crazy man."
"Maybe there was only one loony at first, and he drove the guy
drinking next to him crazy."
"That's possible. Oh, you're kidding. But why does Matthew have two
blind men?"
"Number of a number, where does this happen?" Clem asked.
"9:27-31, and again 20:29-34. In each case the other gospelers have
only one blind man. Why does Matthew double so many things? There are other
instances of it."
"Maybe he needed glasses," Clem said.
"No," the man whispered, "I think he was one of us."
"What 'us' are you talking about?" Clem asked But already he had
begun to suspect that his case was not unique. Suppose that it happened one
time out of a million? There would still be several hundred such sundered
persons in the country, and they would tend to congregate-in such places as
the Two-Faced Bar and Grill. And there was something deprived or riven about
almost every person who came into the place.
And remember," the man was continuing, "the name or cognomen of one
of the other Apostles was 'The Twin.' But of whom was he twin? I think there
was the beginning of a group of them there already."

"He wants to see you," Joe Zabotsky told Clem when they met several
months later. "So does she."
"When did he begin to suspect that there was another one of me?"
"He knew something was wrong from the first. A man doesn't lose a
hundred pounds in an instant without there being something wrong. And he
knew something was very wrong when all his accounts were cleaned out. These
were not forgeries, and he knew it. They were not as good as good forgeries,
for they were hurried and all different and very nervous. But they were all
genuine signatures, he admitted that. Damn, you are a curious fellow, Clem!"
"How much does Veronica know, and how? What does she want? What does
he?"
"He says that she also began to guess from the first. 'You act like
you're only half a man, Clem,' she would say to him, to you, that is. She
wants to see more of her husband, she says, the other half. And he wants to
trade places with you, at least from time to time on a trial basis."
"I won't do it! Let him stew in it!" Then Clem called Clem a name so
vile that it will not be given here.
"Take it easy, Clem," Joe remonstrated. "It's yourself you are
calling that."
There was a quizzical young-old man who came sometimes into the
Two-Faced Bar and Grill. They caught each other's eye this day, and the
young-old began to talk.