"James Morrow - Director's Cut" - читать интересную книгу автора (Morrow James)

An excerpt from The Ten Commandments appears on the video screen: fiery
hail clattering across the balcony of PharaohтАЩs palace.

MOSES. But they were lacking some of the really interesting ones. You
shouldтАЩve seen what DeMilie did with frogs.

The screen displays two elderly, working-class Egyptian women,
BAKETAMON and NELLIFER, potters by trade, sitting on the banks of the Nile
River. As they speak, BAKETAMON fashions a canopic jar, NELLIFER a soup
tureen.

BAKETAMON. (addressing interviewer) The frogs? How could I ever forget
the frogs?

NELLIFER. YouтАЩd open your unmentionables drawer and--pop--one of them
little suckers would jump in your face.

BAKETAMON. DonтАЩt let anyone tell you God hasnтАЩt got a sense of humor.

INTERVIEWER. Which plague was the worst?

BAKETAMON. The boils, I think. My skin looked like the back of the
moon.

NELLIFER. The boils, are you kidding? The locusts were far worse than the
boils.

BAKETAMON. The mosquitoes were pretty nasty too.

NELLIFER. And the flies,

BAKETAMON. And the cattle getting murrain,

NELLIFER. And the death of the firstborn. A lot of people hated that one.

BAKETAMON. Of course, it didnтАЩt touch Nelli and me.

NELLIFER. We were lucky, Our firstborns were already dead.

BAKETAMON. Mine died in the hail.
 INTERVIEWER. Froze?

BAKETAMON. Beaned.

NELLIFER. Mine had been suffering from chronic diarrhea since he was a
month old, so when the waters became blood -- zap, kid got dehydrated.

BAKETAMON. Nelli, your mindтАЩs going. It was your second born who died
when the waters became blood. Your firstborn died in the darkness, when he