"Morrison, William - Bedside Manner v1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrison William)

With the realization, tears began to roll down her cheeks. Tears, she thought, real tearsЧI can feel them. I'm getting arms and legs, and I can shed tears. But I still have no eyes.
But maybe they're growing in . . . From time to time I seem to see flashes of light. Maybe he's making them develop slowly, and he put the tear ducts in order first. I'll have to tell him that my eyes must be blue. Maybe I never was beautiful, but I always had pretty eyes. I don't want any different color. They wouldn't go with my face.
The next time the Doctor spoke to her, she told him.
"You may have your way," he said good-naturedly, as if humoring a child.
"And, Doctor, about finding the ship againЧ"
"Out of the question, as I told you. However, it will not be necessary." He paused, as if savoring what he had to tell her. "I checked with our records department. As might have been expected, they searched your shattered ship thoroughly, in the hope of finding information that might contribute to our understanding of your race. They have the stereos, about a dozen of them."
"A dozen stereos? But I thoughtЧ"
"In your excitement, you may have forgotten that there were more than one. All of them seem to be of yourself and your husband. However, they were obviously taken under a wide variety of conditions, and with a wide variety of equipment, for there are certain minor differences between them which even I, with my non-human vision, can detect. Perhaps you can tell us which one you prefer us to use as a model."
She said slowly, "I had better talk about that with my husband. Can you have him brought in here, Doctor?"
"Of course."

She lay there, thinking. A dozen stereos. And there was still only one that she remembered. Only a single one. They had posed for others, during the honeymoon and shortly after, but those had been left at home on Mars before they started on their trip.
Fred's new voice said, "How are you feeling, dear?"
"Strange. I seem to have new limbs growing in."
"So do I. Guess we'll be our old selves pretty soon."
"Will we?"
She could imagine his forehead wrinkling at the intonation of her voice. "What do you mean, Margaret?"
"Hasn't the Doctor told you? They have the stereos they found on our ship. Now they can model our new faces after our old."
"That's what you wanted, isn't it?"
"But what do you want, Fred? I remember only a single one, and the Doctor says they found a dozen. And he says that my face differs from shot to shot."
Fred was silent.
"Are they as beautiful as all that, Fred?"
"You don't understand, Margaret."
"I understand only too well. I just want to knowЧwere they taken before we were married or after?"
"Before, of course. I haven't gone out with another girl since our wedding."
"Thank you, dear." Her own new voice had venom in it, and she caught herself. I musn't talk like that, she thought. I know Fred, I know his weakness. I knew them before I married him. I have to accept them and help him, not rant at him for them.
He said, "They were just girls I knew casually. Good-looking, but nothing much otherwise. Not in a class with you."
"Don't apologize." This time her voice was calm, even amused. "You couldn't help attracting them. Why didn't you tell me that you kept their pictures?"
"I thought you'd be jealous."
"Perhaps I would have been, but I'd have got over it. Anyway, Fred, is there any one of them you liked particularly?"

He became wary, she thought. His voice was expressionless as he said, "No. Why?"
"Oh, I thought that perhaps you'd want the Doctor to make me look like her."
"Don't be silly, Margaret! I don't want you to look like anybody but yourself. I don't want to see their empty faces ever again!"
"But I thoughtЧ"
"Tell the Doctor to keep the other stereos. Let him put them in one of his museums, with other dead things. They don't mean anything to me any more. They haven't meant anything for a long time. The only reason I didn't throw them away is because I forgot they were there and didn't think of it."
"All right, Fred. I'll tell him to use our picture as a model."
"The AC studio shot. The close-up. Make sure he uses the right one."
"I'll see that there's no mistake."
"When I think I might have to look at one of their mugs for the rest of my life, I get a cold sweat. Don't take any chances, Margaret. It's your face I want to see, and no one else's."
"Yes, dear."
I'll be plain, she thought, but I'll wear well. A background always wears well. Time can't hurt it much, because there's nothing there to hurt.
There's one thing I overlooked, though. How old will we look? The Doctor is rather insensitive about human faces, and he might age us a bit. He mustn't do that. It'll be all right if he wants to make us a little younger, but not older. I'll have to warn him.
She warned him, and again he seemed rather amused at her.
"All right," he said, "you will appear slightly younger. Not too much so, however, for from my reading I judge it best for a human face to show not too great a discrepancy from the physiological age."
She breathed a sigh of relief. It was settled now, all settled. Everything would be as beforeЧperhaps just a little better. She and Fred could go back to their married life with the knowledge that they would be as happy as ever. Nothing exuberant, of course, but as happy as their own peculiar natures permitted. As happy as a plain and worried wife and a handsome husband could ever be.
Now that this had been decided, the days passed slowly. Her arms and legs grew, and her eyes too. She could feel the beginnings of fingers and toes, and on the sensitive optic nerve the flashes of light came with greater and greater frequency. There were slight pains from time to time, but they were pains she welcomed. They were the pains of growth, of return to normalcy.
And then came the day when the Doctor said, "You have recovered. In another day, as you measure time, I shall remove your bandages."
Tears welled up in her new eyes. "Doctor, I don't know how to thank you."
"No thanks are needed. I have only done my work." "What will you do with us now?"