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

and lampreys."
"Horses and asses, Veronica," Clem said, "elk and moose. Rabbits and
hares."
"Mushrooms and toadstools, Veronica," Clem said. "Mosses and
lichens. Butterflies and moths."
"Camels and dromedaries, Clem," Veronica said. "Salamanders and
newts, dragonfly and damselfly."
Say, they thought about pairs by the long ton. They thought every
kind of sundering and divisive thought. They plumbed the depths of
psychology and biology, and called in some of the most respected quacks of
the city for advice.
No people ever tried anything harder. Veronica and Clem and Clem did
everything they could think of. They gave it a month. "I'll do it or bust,"
Veronica said.
And they came close, so close that you could feel it. Veronica
weighed up a hundred pounds well within the month, and then coasted in on
double brandies. It was done all hut the final thing.
Pay homage to her, people! She was a valiant woman! They both said
that about her after it was over with.
They would admire her as long as they lived. She had given it
everything.
"I'll do it or bust," she had said.
And after they had gathered her remains together and buried her, it
left a gap in their lives, in Clem's more than in Clem's, since Clem had
already been deprived of her for these last several years.
And a special honor they paid her.
They set two headstones on her grave. One of them said 'Veronica.'
And the other one said 'Veronica.'
She'd have liked that.

THE ULTIMATE CREATURE

I

The old Galaxy maps (imitating early Earth maps, partly in humor and
partly through intuition) pictured strong creatures in the far arms of the
system -- Serpents bigger than Spaceships, Ganymede-type Tigers, fish-tailed
Maids, grand Dolphins, and Island-sized Androids. We think particularly of
the wry masterpieces of Grobin. And at the end of the Far or Seventh arm of
the Galaxy is shown the Ultimate Creature.
The Ultimate Creature had the form of a Woman, and it bore three
signs in Chaldee: The Sign of Treasure; the Sign of the Fish Mashur (the
queerest fish of them all); and the Sign of Restitution or of Floating
Justice.
Floating Justice is the ethical equivalent of the Isostasis of the
Geologists. It states in principle that every unbalance will be brought into
new balance, sometimes gently, sometimes as by planet-quake; that the most
submerged may be elevated, by a great sundering of strata, to the highest
point, if such is required for compensation. And there is a final tenet of
this Floating Justice, that some day, somewhere, the meanest man of all the