"Barry Longyear - Enemy Mine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Longyear Barry)

It could have been for seconds or years that I groped into the darkness around me. I felt touching, but the
parts of me being touched seemed far, far away. First chills, then fever, then chills again, my head being
cooled by a gentle hand. I opened my eyes to narrow slits and saw Jerry hovering over me, blotting my
forehead with something cool. I managed a whisper. "Jerry."
The Drac looked into my eyes and smiled. "Good is, Davidge. Good is."
The light on Jerry's face flickered and I smelled smoke. "Fire."
Jerry got out of the way and pointed toward the center of the room's sandy floor. I let my head roll over
and realized that I was lying on a bed of soft, springy branches. Opposite my bed was another bed, and
between them crackled a cheery camp-fire. "Fire now we have, Davidge. And wood." Jerry pointed
toward the roof made of wooden poles thatched with broad leaves.
I turned and looked around, then let my throbbing head sink down and closed my eyes. "Where are we?"
"Big island, Davidge. Soaker off sandbar us washed. Wind and waves us here took. Right you were."
"I... I don't understand; ne gavey. It'd take days to get to the big island from the sandbar."
Jerry nodded and dropped what looked like a sponge into a shell of some sort filled with water.
"Nine days. You I strap to nasesay, then here on beach we land."
"Nine days? I've been out for nine days?"

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Jerry shook his head. "Seventeen. Here we land eight days..." The Drac waved its hand behind itself.
"Ago . . . eight days ago."
"Ae."
Seventeen days on Fyrine IV was better than a month on Earth. I opened my eyes again and looked at
Jerry. The Drac was almost bubbling with excitement. "What about your lean, your child?"
Jerry patted its swollen middle. "Good is, Davidge. You more nasesay hurt."
I overcame an urge to nod. "I'm happy for you." I closed my eyes and turned my face toward the wall, a
combination of wood poles and leaves "Jerry?"
"Ess?"
"You saved my life."
"Ae."
"Why?"
Jerry sat quietly for a long time. "Davidge. On sandbar you talk. Loneliness now gavey." The Drac
shook my arm. "Here, now you eat."
I turned and looked into a shell filled with t steaming liquid. "What is it, chicken soup?"
Ess?"
Ess va?" I pointed at the bowl, realizing for tht first time how weak I was.
Jerry frowned. "Like slug, but long."
"An eel?"
"Ae, but eel on land, gavey?"
"You mean 'snake'?"
"Possiblemaybeperhaps."
I nodded and put my lips to the edge of the shell. I sipped some of the broth, swallowed and let the
broth's healing warmth seep through my body. "Good."
"You custa want?"
"Ess?"
"Custa." Jerry reached next to the fire and picked up a squareish chunk of clear rock. I looked at it,
scratched it with my thumbnail, then touched it with my tongue.
"Halite! Salt!"