"Julian May - Diamond Mask" - читать интересную книгу автора (May Julian)

complete them, I'll be able to go in peace.
The old man mopped at his eyes. "Bat├иge! Who'd have thought I'd get all soppy over you? A
goddam figment of my goddam booze-pickled imagination! That's what Denis and Paul always said you
were. Merde alors, it makes more sense for me to believe that than the cosmic bullshit you've been
dishing out."
If it makes you more comfortable, by all means believe it.
"I'll make up my own mind what to believe," the old man muttered perversely. Then he asked:
"Where do you think I should settle in to do the writing? Down at the old Kendall place in Poipu?"
I have a better suggestion. How about Elaine Donovan's lodge near Pohakumano? It's at a high
enough elevation to be cool, and no vacationing Remillards are likely to bother you there, as they
well might down at the coast. The house is isolated and it has been kept in excellent condition by
caretakers, even though Elaine has not visited it for many years. You'd find it very comfortable
and much quieter than Hanover in the summertime.
"Elaine ..." Rogi's face stiffened. "I didn't know she had a vacation house on Kauai. But she
was Teresa's grandmother, of course."
I can arrange to have your transcriber and any other personal items you might need brought
over from New Hampshire. Even your cat, Marcel, if you like.
"IтАФI don't think I better stay at Elaine's place."
The thought of her still brings you pain?
"No, not anymore."
Then use her house. You know she wouldn't mind.
The old man sighed. What did it matter, after all? "All right. Whatever you say. Bring my
stuff and old Fur-Face, too. And a stock of decent food and liquor." He stretched, easing his
aching muscles. It had been a long day, and now it was pitch black outside and the rain was
pouring down harder than ever. "I don't suppose I could spend the night here in the cave, could
I?"
Do you wish to?
Rogi shrugged. "It feels real good in here. Metasafe! If I'm going to stay on the island, I
guess I'll have to ask Malama Johnson to tell me more about this place. Funny thingтАФwhen you and I
first brought Teresa's ashes here after the funeral Mass at St. Raphael's in the cane fields,
Malama seemed to think you'd been here before."
[Laughter.] Kahunas know too much. They are an anomalous type of human metapsychic operant,
as any Krondak evaluator will tell you ... And now, why don't you make yourself something to eat
and then get some sleep. I have other matters to attend to and I must leave you for a time. I'll
come and collect you in the morning.
"Suit yourself," said Rogi, and opened his backpack.
Even though there was no discernible physical manifestation, the old man was aware that the
Family Ghost had abruptly vanished. Shaking his head, Rogi took out packets of gamma-stabilized
food and a tiny microwave stove and began to prepare a Kauaian-style supper of chicken-feet
appetizers, fried rice, Spam, pineapple upside-down cake, and lilikoi punch. As he ate, the small
mystery of why he had been drawn to Kauai also seemed to resolve itself. The birds, of course. The
island had always been a magnet for amateur ornithologists like himself.
And like Dorothea Macdonald, the subject of this next part of his memoirs.
It had been her doing that brought him hereтАФor perhaps that of her memory abiding deep within


file:///F|/rah/Julian%20May/May,%20Julian%20-%20Galactic%20Milieu%202%20-%20Diamond%20Mask.txt (6 of 206) [1/15/03 7:36:12 PM]
 file:///F|/rah/Julian%20May/May,%20Julian%20-%20Galactic%20Milieu%202%20-%20Diamond%20Mask.txt

his own unconscious. Doroth├йe. Saint Illusion. The woman who always wore a mask, even in her