"Lewis Padgett - A Gnome There Was (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Padgett Lewis)

Crockett looked down at himself. He made soft cheeping noises, indicative of
disbelief. He had squat bow legs, thick and strong, and no more than two feet
longтАФless, if anything. Uncertain with disbelief, Crockett explored his body.
It had changedтАФcertainly not for the better.
He was slightly more than four feet high, and about three feet wide, with a
barrel chest, enormous splay feet, stubby thick legs, and no neck whatsoever.
He was wearing red sandals, blue shorts, and a red tunic which left his lean
but sinewy arms bare. His headтАФTurnip-shaped. The mouthтАФYipe! Crockett had
inadvertently put his fist clear into it. He withdrew the offending hand
instantly, stared around in a dazed fashion, and collapsed on the ground. It
couldn't be happening. It was quite impossible. Hallucinations. He was dying
of asphyxiation, and delusions were preceding his death.


Crockett shut his eyes, again convinced that his lungs were laboring for
breath. "I'm dying," he said. "I c-can't breathe."
A contemptuous voice said, "I hope you don't think you're breathing air!"
"I'm n-notтАФ" Crockett didn't finish the sentence. His eyes popped again. He
was hearing things.
He heard it again. "You're a singularly lousy specimen of gnome," the voice
said. "But under Nid's law we can't pick and choose. Still, you won't be put
to digging hard metals, I can see that. Anthracite's about your speed. What're
you staring at? You're very much uglier than I am."
Crockett, endeavoring to lick his dry lips, was horrified to discover the end
of his moist tongue dragging limply over his eyes. He whipped it back, with a
loud smacking noise, and managed to sit up. Then he remained perfectly
motionless, staring.
The head had reappeared. This time there was a body under it.
"I'm Gru Magru," said the head chattily. "You'll be given a gnomic name, of
course, unless your own is guttural enough. What is it?"
"Crockett," the man responded, in a stunned, automatic manner.
"Hey?"
"Crockett."
"Stop making noises like a frog andтАФoh, I see. Grockett. Fair enough. Now get
up and follow me or I'll kick the pants off you."
But Crockett did not immediately rise. He was watching Gru MagruтАФobviously a
gnome. Short, squat, and stunted, the being's figure resembled a bulging
little barrel, topped by an inverted turnip. The hair grew up thick to a
peakтАФthe root, as it were. In the turnip face was a loose, immense slit of a
mouth, a button of a nose, and two very large eyes.
"Get up!" Gru Magru said.
This time Crockett obeyed, but the effort exhausted him completely. If he
moved again, he thought, he would go mad. It would be just as well. GnomesтАФ

Gru Magru planted a large splay foot where it would do the most good, and
Crockett described an arc which ended at a jagged boulder fallen from the
roof. "Get up," the gnome said, with gratuitous bad temper, "or I'll kick you
again. It's bad enough to have an outlying prospect patrol, where I might run
into a man any time, withoutтАФUp! OrтАФ"
Crockett got up. Gru Magru took his arm and impelled him into the depths of