"Ursula K. LeGuin - The Island of the Immortals" - читать интересную книгу автора (Le Guin Ursula K)

found them. If I understood the treatise, some that had been found were immense by
our standards: they were described as shapeless lumps, usually black or dark,
occasionally clear, and weighing up to five pounds. Nothing was said about cutting
these huge stones, what they were used for, or their market price. Evidently the
Yendi didnтАЩt prize diamonds as we do. There was a lifeless, almost furtive tone to
the treatise, as if it concerned something vaguely shameful.
Surely if the islanders actually knew anything about тАЬthe secret of ETERNAL
LIFE,тАЭ thereтАЩd be a bit more about them, and it, in the library?
It was mere stubbornness, or reluctance to go back to the sullen travel agent
and admit my mistake, that impelled me to the docks the next morning.
I cheered up no end when I saw my ship, a charming miniliner with about
thirty pleasant staterooms. Its fortnightly round took it to several islands farther west
than Aya. Its sister ship, stopping by on the homeward leg, would bring me back to
the mainland at the end of my week. Or perhaps I would simply stay aboard and
have a two-week cruise? That was fine with the shipтАЩs staff. They were informal,
even lackadaisical, about arrangements. I had the impression that low energy and a
short attention span were quite common among Yendians. But my companions on
the ship were undemanding, and the cold fish salads were excel-lent. I spent two
days on the top deck watching sea-birds swoop, great red fish leap, and translucent
vane-wings hover over the sea. We sighted Aya very early in the morning of the third
day. At the mouth of the bay the smell of the marshes was truly discouraging; but a
conversation with the shipтАЩs captain had decided me to visit Aya after all, and I
disembarked
The captain, a man of sixty or so, had assured me that there were indeed
immortals on the island. They were not born immortal, but contracted immortality
from the bite of the island flies. It was, he thought, a virus. тАЬYouтАЩll want to take
precautions,тАЭ he said. тАЬItтАЩs rare. I donтАЩt think thereтАЩs been a new case in the last
hundred yearsтАФlonger, maybe. But you donтАЩt want to take chances.тАЭ
After pondering awhile I inquired, as delicately as possible, though delicacy is
hard to achieve on the translatomat, whether there werenтАЩt people who wanted to
escape deathтАФpeople who came to the island hoping to be bitten by one of these
lively flies. Was there a drawback I did not know about, some price too high to pay
even for immortality?
The captain considered my question for a while. He was slow-spoken,
unexcitable, verging on the lugubrious. тАЬI think so,тАЭ he said. He looked at me. тАЬYou
can judge,тАЭ he said. тАЬAfter youтАЩve been there.тАЭ
He would say no more. A shipтАЩs captain is a person who has that privilege.
The ship did not put into the bay, but was met out beyond the bar by a boat
that took passengers ashore. The other passengers were still in their cabins. Nobody
but the captain and a couple of sailors watched me (all rigged out head to foot in a
suit of strong but gauzy mesh which I had rented from the ship) clamber down into
the boat and wave goodbye. The captain nodded. One of the sailors waved. I was
extremely frightened. It was no help at all that I didnтАЩt know what I was frightened
of.
Putting the captain and Postwand together, it sounded as if the price of
im-mortality was the horrible disease, udreba. But I really had very little evidence,
and my curiosity was intense. If a virus that made you immortal turned up in my
country, vast sums of money would be poured into studying it, and if it had bad
effects theyтАЩd alter it genetically to get rid of the bad effects, and the talk shows
would yatter on about it, and news anchors would pontificate about it, and the Pope