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

restore it no matter how I tried. I heard a humming soundтАФyes, humming. Still, the threads kept
tearing. I felt each severed thread end curling in.

The cold "something'' moved again. It moved until it centered in my head. Everything else was
numb. Please! I called for help. No voice; my tongue lay paralyzed. I felt my being drawing
inward, totally collected in my head. Mimbins were compressedтАФno, try again. M-e-m-b-ranes. Yes.
Pushed out and toward the center all at once.

I began to move out through an opening in my head. There was a buzzing noise, a ringing, something
rushing very fast like a stream through a narrow gorge. I felt myself begin to rise. I was a
bubble, bobbing up and down. I thought I saw a tunnel up above me, dark and endless. I turned over
and looked down and was stunned to see my body lying on the bed. Bandaged and immobile. Fed
through plastic tubes. I was connected to it by a cord which glistened with a silver light. Thin,
it joined my body at the top of my head. The silver cord, I thought; my God, the silver cord. I
knew that it was all that kept my body living.

Revulsion came now as I saw my legs and arms begin to twitch. Breath had almost ceased. There was
a look of agony on my face. Again, I foughtтАФto go back down and join my body. No, I won't go! I
could hear my mind cry out. Ann, help me! Please! We have to be together!

I forced myself down and stared at my face. The lips were purple, there was dewlike sweat across
the skin. I saw the neck veins start to swell. The muscles of my body had begun to twitch. I tried
with all my will to get back in. Ann! I thought. Please call me back so I can stay with you!



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A miracle occurred. Life filled my body, healthy color suffusing the skin, a look of peace across
my face. I thanked God. Ann and the children wouldn't have to see me as I'd been. I thought that I
was coming back, you see.

Not so. I saw my body in a sack of many colors, drawn up by the silver cord. I felt a dropping
sensation, heard a snapping noiseтАФas though a giant rubber band had brokenтАФ felt myself begin to
rise.

A flashback then. Yes, that's correct. A flashback; just as in the movies but much faster. You've
read the phrase and heard it many times: "His whole life flashed before him." Robert, it's true.
So fast I couldn't follow itтАФand in reverse. The days before the accident, back through the
children's lives, my marriage to Ann, my writing career. College, World War Two, high school,
grammar school, my childhood and my infancy. 1974-1927 every second of those years. Each movement,
thought, emotion; every spoken word. I saw it all. A blur of rushing images.

To dream of dreaming

I SAT UP on the bed abruptly, laughing. It had only been a dream! I felt alert, all senses
magnified. Incredible, I thought, how real a dream can be.

But something was wrong with my vision. Everything was blurred as I looked around. I couldn't see