"Barry N. Malzberg - Jobs Partner" - читать интересную книгу автора (Malzberg Barry N)

And now Al, walled behind breeziness and false cheer, stopping on his way from
work, bringing her tidbits of office gossip and asking where he could find a pot
to steam beans, and whether to wash underwear on hot or cold. Al, inhabiting
another world, a world of ads and ad blanks, synagogue once a year and
whisperings in the night twice a week.

A vision of Purpose -- hers -- which transcended anyone else's. To bring Him
into the World. To be the Mother of the Messiah.

And now, here were these Beings -- Angels? Aliens? -- to bring it all to
fruition. And she was thrashing about in her mind, resisting. Why?

"I -- I don't want to lose my baby." Her voice was tiny, wavering. "Maybe, maybe
just let the Earth go its own way. Die. Whatever. But don't take my child away
from me."

A tsk-tsk from the trio. "Sacrifice all to save one?" A shake of the headlike
parts. "Is this the Judith whose life dreams have been devoted to saving the
world?"

She sighed and sank back, her face seeking refuge in her cupped hands. Then a
thought, a tiny splash of harmony amid the dissonance. "Why can't I come too?"

"We don't have accommodations for two. Just one."

"So build more!"

The three surrounded her, engulfing in their dripping kindness. "We have so many
planets -- so many universes -- so many galaxies. All in serious trouble. We can
only save one from each, or we'd be overrun, you see, and then we couldn't help
anyone. Could we?"

A prison. A prison of words, arguments, logic. A prison of her own dreams, the
milk of childhood fantasies soured by this trio of warmth which was to bring it
to fruition. To voluntarily turn the tiny particle of her which was growing and
kicking inside her over to Others to raise --

Then her eyes widened, her heartbeat quickened, hands, icily moist, clutched her
belly. The baby would be taken from her anyway. These people -- Al, the doctors
-- who wouldn't believe her, who thought the Beings were simply shadowy actors
on some demented mental stage -- they would start pouring their poisons into her
body as soon as Baby would be born, would deem her an unfit mother and wrench
Baby from her anyway.

She looked up. The Tall One was looming over her.
"Yes!" It came out in a rush, a burst of sorrow, joy and relief. "Yes. Yes.
You'll take the Baby when it's born."

She was suffused by Light as the Trio surrounded and submerged her,
transmutative, embracing, complete. "We will come back then," the Tall One