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

"My what?" Paul Marquis' head spun around like a good servo-mechanism.
Esther slid the right-hand door back into its slot and stepped delicately onto the mud. "I'll bet you
have it half-furnished, too. And full of the crazy domestic gimmicks you're always working out. Downy
old duck, aren't you? 'Come on, Es, I want to ask your advice on where to stick a house on that land I
bought !' So go on and smirk: don't worry, I won't have the gall to say I knew it all the time."
Marquis watched the progress of her feminized blue jeans up the bush-infested hill toward the green
and white cottage with anything but a smirk. His tongue rolled out of his mouth and slapped moisture on
his working lipsтАФmoisture which seemed to be used up as fast as it was applied. His eyes, after a couple
of wistful attempts at running broad jumps from their sockets, settled down into an earnest conference
with each other. Occasionally he said, "Whul?"; at other times, he said, "Nipe!" At no time did he smirk.
Finally, he swung madly over the side, slipped headlong into the mud, picked himself up and
clambered on, dripping great brown chunks of Canadian soil as he thudded up the slope.
Esther nodded at him as he approached, her hand truculent on the long, old-fashioned doorknob.
"What's the sense of locking doors in this wilderness? If anyone were going to bur-glarize, they could
smash a window quite easily and help them-selves while you were away. Well, don't stand there looking
philosophicalтАФmake with the key, make with the key!"
"TheтАФthe key." Dazed, he took a small key chain out of his pocket, looked at it for a moment, then
shoved it back violently. He ran a hand through a tangle of blond hair and leaned against the door. It
opened.
The bacteriologist trotted past him as he clawed at the post to retain his balance. "Never could get
the hang of those prehis-toric gadgets. Photoelectric cells will be good enough for my children, and
they're good enough for me. Oh, Paul! Don't tell me your sense for the fitness of things extends no further
than atomic nuclei. Look at that furniture!"
"Furniture?" he asked very weakly. Slowly, he opened eyes which had been tightly closed while he
leaned against the door. He took in the roomful of chairs and tables done in the
sprout-ing-from-one-center-leg style which was currently popular. "Furniture!" he sighed and carefully
dosed his eyes again.
Esther Sakarian shook her round head with assurance. "1958 Single-Support just doesn't go in a
Cape Cod cottage. Believe me, Paul, your poetic soul may want to placate your scientific mind by giving
it superfunctional surroundings, but you can't do it in this kind of a house. Furthermore, just by looking at
that retouched picture of Caroline you have pasted to your Geiger counter, I know she wouldn't
approve. You'll have to get rid of at least . . ."
He had come up to her side and stood plucking the sleeve of her bright plaid shirt. "Esther," he
muttered, "my dear, sweet, talkative, analytical, self-confident EstherтАФplease sit down and shut up!"
She dropped into a roundly curved seat, staring at him from angled eyebrows. "You have a point to
make?"
1"I have a point to make !" Paul told her emphatically. He waved wildly at the modern furniture
which seemed to be talking slang in the pleasant, leisurely room. "All this, the house, the furniture, the
accessories, was not only not built nor sent here by me, butтАФbut wasn't here a week ago when I came
out with the man from the land office and bought the property. It shouldn't be here!"
"Nonsense! It couldn't just . . ." She broke off.
He nodded. "It did just. But that only makes me feel crazy. What makes me positively impatient for a
jacket laced tastefully up the back is the furniture. It's the kind of furniture I thought of whenever Caroline
talked about building this cottage. But the point is this: I knew she wanted to stuff it full of New Eng-land
antique, andтАФsince I feel a woman's place is in the home тАФI never argued the point. I never mentioned
buying Single-Support to her; I've never mentioned the idea to anyone. And every chair and table in this
room is exactly what I thought it should beтАФprivately!"

Esther had been listening to him with an expanding frown. Now she started an uneasy giggle, and cut
it off before it began to throb. "Paul, I know you're too neurotic to be insane, and I'm willing to admit my