"Judith Merril - Beyond Human Ken" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merril Judith)

..."

A despairing shout from Esther tugged them outside.
"I've just broken my second scalpel on this chunk of iridium masquerading as fragile flesh. I have a
definite suspicion, Paul, that I won't so much as scratch it unless you give me permis-sion. Please tell your
house it's all right for me to take a tiny chunk."
"It'sтАФit's all right," Paul said uncomfortably, then added, "only, try not to hurt it too much."
Leaving the girl slicing a long, thin strip from the western corner, they walked down the cellar steps
into the basement. Connor Kuntz stumbled around peering down at the floor for some example of an
obviously biological organ. He found only whitewashed cement.
"Assume its function of ..." he said at last. "It's function of serving! My dear fellow, do you realize this
house has a sex?"
"Sex?" Paul moved aback, taken there by the thought. "You mean it can have lots of little
bungalows?"
"Oh, not in the reproductive sense, not in the reproductive sense!" The plump doctor would have
prodded him in the ribs if he hadn't started hurriedly up the stairs. "It has sex in the emotional, the
psychological sense. As a woman wants to be a wife to a man, as a man searches for a woman to whom
he can be an adequate husbandтАФjust so this house desires to be a home to a living creature who both
needs it and owns it. As such it fulfills itself and becomes capable of its one voluntary actтАФthe
demonstration of affection, again in terms of the creature it serves. By the by, it also seems to be that
theoretically happy medium in those disagreements on twentieth century domestic arrangements with
which you and Esther liven up the mess hall on occasion. Unostentatious love and imaginative service."
"Does at that. If only Es didn't make a habit of plucking my nerve-ends . . . Hum. Have you noticed
how pleasant she's been today ?"
"Of course. The house has made adjustments in her per-sonality for your greater happiness."
"What? Es has been changed? You're crazy, Connor!"
The doctor's thick lips flapped delightedly. "On the con-trary, my boy. I assure you she was just as
argumentative back in Little Fermi and on the way out here as she ever was. The moment she saw you,
she became most traditionally feminineтАФwithout losing one jot of her acuity or subtlety, remember that.
When someone, like Esther Sakarian who has avoided the 'You are so right, my lord' attitude all her life
acquires it overnight, she has had help. In this case, the house."
Paul Marquis dug his knuckles at the solid, reassuring sub-stance of the basement wall. "Es has been
changed by the house for my possible personal convenience? I don't know if I like that. Es should be Es,
good or bad. Besides, it might take a notion to change me."
The older man looked at him with a deadly twinkle. "I don't know how it affects
personalitiesтАФhigh-order therapeutic radia-tion on an intellectual level?тАФbut let me ask you this, Paul,
wouldn't you like to be happy at the agreeable alteration in Miss Sakarian? And, furthermore, wouldn't
you like to think that the house couldn't affect your own attitudes?"
"Of course." Paul shrugged his shoulders. "For that matter, I am happy about Es getting some
womanly sense in her head. And, come to think of it, I doubt if you or anyone else could ever convince
me that the house could push mental fixations around like so much furniture. Whole thing's too ridiculous
for further discussion."
Connor Kuntz chortled and slapped his thighs for emphasis. "Perfect! And now even you can't
imagine that the wish for such a state of mind made the house produce it in you. It learns to serve you
better all the time! Dr. Dufayel is going to appre-ciate this fact of its versatility in particular."
"A point there. But I don't go for advertising my peculiar residence and its properties--whatever they
areтАФup and down the field of research medicine. Is there any way I can persuade you to lay off?"
Kuntz stopped his dignified little dance and looked up seri-ously. "Why, certainly! I can think of at
least two good reasons why I should never again discuss your house with anyone but you or Esther." He
seemed to consider a moment. "Rather, I should say there are six or seven reasons for not mentioning