"Richard Matheson - What Dreams May Come" - читать интересную книгу автора (Matheson Richard)

ROBERT NIELSEN Islip, New York January, 1978

A blur of rushing images

тАЬBEGIN AT THE beginning" is the phrase. I cannot do that. I begin at the endтАФthe conclusion of my
life on earth. I present it to you as it happenedтАФand what happened afterward.

A note about the text. You have read my writing, Robert. This account may seem unlike it. The
reasonтАФI am limited by my transcriber. My thoughts must travel through her mind. I cannot surmount
that. All the grains will not pass through the filter. Understand if I appear to oversimplify.
Especially at first.

Both of us are doing the best we can.

Thank God I was alone that night. Usually, Ian went to the movies with me. Twice a weekтАФbecause of
my work, you know.

That night he didn't go. He was appearing in a school play. Once againтАФthank God.

I went to a theatre near a shopping center. Cannot get the name through. A big one which had been
divided into two. Ask Ian for the name.

It was after eleven when I left the theatre. I got in my car and drove toward the golf course. The
tiny oneтАФfor children. Cannot get the word through. All right. Spell it. Slowly now. M-i-n ... i-a
... t-u ... r-e. Good. We have it.

There was traffic on theтАФstreet? No, wider. Av ... e-nue? Not exact but good enough. I thought
there was an opening and pulled out. Had to stop, a car was speeding toward me. There was room for
it to move around me but it didn't. Hit my left front fender, sent me spinning.

I was shaken but had on my belt. Not belt. H-a-r-n-ess. I would not have been too badly injured.
But a van came up and hit the right rear fender of my car, knocking me across the middle line. A
truck was coming in the opposite direction. Hit my car straight on. I heard a grinding crash, the
shattering of glass. I hit my head and blackness swept across me. For an instant, I believed I saw
myself unconscious, bleeding. Then came darkness.

I was conscious again. The pain was dreadful. I could hear my breathing, an awful sound. Slow and
shallow with sporadic, liquid sighs. My feet were icy cold. I remember that.

Gradually, I sensed a room around me. People too, I think. Something kept me from being sure.
Sidayshin. No, re-do. Spell slowly. S-e-d-a-t... sedation.

I began to hear a whispering voice. I couldn't make out the words. Briefly, I could see a form
nearby. My eyes were closed but I saw it. I couldn't tell if the form was male or female but I
knew that it was speaking to me. When I couldn't hear the words, it went away.

Another pain began, this one in my mind, increasing steadily. I seemed to tune it in as though it
were a radio station. It was not my pain but Ann's. She was crying, frightened. Because I was
hurt. She was afraid for me. I felt her anguish. She was suffering terribly. I tried to will away
the shadows but I couldn't. Tried in vain to speak her name. Don't cry, I thought. I'll be all