"Paul Levinson - Loose Ends (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Levinson Paul)

been compelling. So he'd told her. And here he was, still
around, and feeling fine.
He breathed in slowly. Fragrances real and recalled bathed
his brain. "You know, when I was a kid, my grandfather used to
tell me about summers he spent on Cape Cod when he was a kid
himself. At night, sometimes two or three in the morning, he'd
walk along the beach and gradually leave his cottage in the
distance. Sometimes he'd turn around and, still seeing the
light of the cottage, would walk further until it was completely
gone. Then he'd close his eyes and think, there's no difference
between what I see with my eyes open and my eyes closed. He'd
sit in the salty water, a foot or two deep, and feel the cold
fluid pulse of the cosmos throbbing through his clothes. Then
he'd get up and walk again, cold but not shivering, until he
made contact with that spot of light that was his cottage. He
was never sure until it happened that he would see that light
again. But when he did, he'd walk with the satisfaction of
knowing that after having gone out to the very limits and beyond
of his usual reality, he was about to enter it again. I never
really fully understood what my grandfather was saying to me --
until now."
Laura looked at him, stroked his face with the center of
her palm. "You're serious about this, aren't you?"
"Serious about what?"
"The time travel," Laura said.
Jeff said nothing.
"I can be with you anyway," Laura said. "I don't have to
believe it's real. I can pretend to believe it's real, play
along that you're from the future, like you say you are. I'm
not sure there's all that much difference between really
believing and pretending to believe anyway, if you pretend
sincerely enough."
"You've got some philosophy there," Jeff said.
Laura took his hand, put it to her lips.
"And you're not worried that I really _am_ crazy -- maybe
dangerous?" Jeff asked.
"Oh, you're dangerous all right," she said, grazing her
teeth over his index finger. "And as to your story -- my feeling
is that whatever the truth of it, you're a good man. I feel
right about that."
Jeff sighed. "You remember what I said the first day of
class about no one really knowing for sure that anything is real
-- we could well be dreaming all of this, and might even dream
that someone pinched us and tried to awaken us and nothing
happened -- but that we'd all go crazy unless we took at least
some leap of faith, and assumed on nothing better than faith
that the world is real and we were really here?"
"I was late for that lecture, wasn't I?"
"No, I'm quite sure you were there," Jeff said. "Look, I'm
trying to say that--"