"John Morressy - Last Jerry Fagin Show" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morressy John)

confident, feeling the audience with him. They were laughing in the right
places, waiting for the lines they knew he was going to feed his stooge from
outer space.

Jerry jumped from topic to topic, always balancing the serious question with
the quick punch line or asking a dumb question and then going statesmanlike,
until the audience was helpless and Twelve didn't know what the hell was going
on. Those syrupy responses came slower and slower. Each pause was longer than
the one before. Finally, when Jerry got on the subject of reproduction, Twelve
gave up completely and sat very still. Except for his eyes and nose and mouth.
They were crawling around his face like flies trapped in vanilla pudding.

By now Jerry was sailing. The biggest audience in TV history was watching him,
and he was showing them that nobody and nothing, not even a creature from
another world, could top Jerry Fagin on his own show. I caught the wild,
piercing gleam of ego in Jerry's eyes as he stood up, tousled his hair, and
boomed out, "Well, I'll tell you the whole story, citizen, but you'll have to
promise not to interrupt me. If there's one thing I can't stand, citizen, it's
an interrupter."

He was slipping into a favorite character. Senator Wynn Baggs, the filibuster
champion of Washington. The audience applauded and

howled with delighted recognition as Jerry ranted on.

All this time Twelve sat like a statue, watching every move that Jerry made.
He didn't look angry or insulted. At least, nothing on that Silly Putty face
suggested irritation. As far as I could read him, Twelve was fascinated. It
was as if he had Jerry under a microscope and couldn't believe what he was
seeing. And Jerry ate up the attention like a kid with a hot fudge sundae.

Then Twelve threw up both his arms in a "Eureka!" gesture. I could almost see
an oldfashioned light bulb go on over his head. For the first time that night
his features stayed put. The audience got very quiet all of a sudden.

"This is a tohei-meiox!" Twelve announced suddenly, as if that explained
everything.

Instinctively Jerry topped him. "If it is, you'll wipe it up. But I ought to
warn you-the producer's wife loves it."

Twelved worked his face around into something like an untidy smile. "Now it
becomes clear what is my role in this ritual," he said. His voice sounded a
little less gooey.

When Twelve began to get up, Jerry had the first whiff of trouble ahead. He
bounced to his feet while Twelve was still halfway up, and with a big smile at
his guest he said, "Thank you, Mr. Ambassador, for honoring us by consenting
to appear on The Jerry Fagin Show. It's been a great pleasure and an exciting
experience for all of us, and we're sorry you have to rush off, but we know