"Fritz Leiber - The Girl with the Hungry Eyes" - читать интересную книгу автора (Leiber Fritz)

IтАЩd been working at the Marsh-Mason studios until IтАЩd got my bellyful of it and decided to start in for
myself. The Hauser Building was crummyтАФIтАЩll never forget how the stairs creakedтАФbut it was cheap
and there was a skylight.

Business was lousy. I kept making the rounds of all the advertisers and agencies, and some of them
didnтАЩt object to me too much personally, but my stuff never clicked. I was pretty near broke. I was
behind on my rent. Hell, I didnтАЩt even have enough money to have a girl.

It was one of those dark gray afternoons. The building was awfully quietтАФeven with the shortage they
canтАЩt half rent the Hauser. IтАЩd just finished developing some pix I was doing on speculation for
Lovelybelt Girdles and BufordтАЩs Pool and PlaygroundтАФthe last a faked-up beach scene. My model had
left. A Miss Leon. She was a civics teacher at one of the high schools and modeled for me on the side,
just lately on speculation too. After one look at the prints, I decided that Miss Leon probably wasnтАЩt just
what Lovelybelt was looking forтАФor my photography either. I was about to call it a day.

And then the street door slammed four storeys down and there were steps on the stairs and she came in.

She was wearing a cheap, shiny black dress. Black pumps. No stockings. And except that she had a gray
cloth coat over one of them, those skinny arms of hers were bare. Her arms are pretty skinny, you know,
or can you see things like that any more?

And then the thin neck, the slightly gaunt, almost prim face, the tumbling mass of dark hair, and looking
out from under it the hungriest eyes in the world.

ThatтАЩs the real reason sheтАЩs plastered all over the country today, you knowтАФthose eyes. Nothing vulgar,
but just the same theyтАЩre looking at you with a hunger thatтАЩs all sex and something more than sex. ThatтАЩs
what everybodyтАЩs been looking for since the Year OneтАФsomething a little more than sex.

Well, boys, there I was, along with the Girl, in an office that was getting shadowy, in a nearly empty
building. A situation that a million male Americans have undoubtedly pictured to themselves with
various lush details. How was I feeling? Scared.

I know sex can be frightening. That cold, heart-thumping when youтАЩre alone with a girl and feel youтАЩre
going to touch her. But if it was sex this time, it was overlaid with something else.

At least I wasnтАЩt thinking about sex.



file:///J|/sci-fi/Nieuwe%20map/Leiber,%20Fritz%20-%2...not%20Enough]%20-%20The%20Girl%20with%20the%20H.html (3 of 15)16-2-2006 15:43:21
 Fritz Leiber - The Girl with the Hungry Eyes

I remember that I took a backward step and that my hand jerked so that the photos I was looking at
sailed to the floor.

There was the faintest dizzy feeling like something was being drawn out of me. Just a little bit.

That was all. Then she opened her mouth and everything was back to normal for a while.