"Laura Resnick - Ever Since Eden" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Laura)

Dr. Seltzer thinks.
But I notice _she's_ not living in Texas.
****
I've tried hypnotherapy. I saw a lot of shiny, white cubes floating in space
and I gave up smoking, but my daytime fears and nightmare horrors remained
unchanged. Regression revealed nothing except the fact that my brother was an
absolute shit who frequently took advantage of an already existing fear. I
even tried past life regression and learned that I was Scarlet O'Hara in my
previous incarnation; I didn't have the heart to tell the excited hypnotist
that Scarlet was fictional.
I tried the educational approach, too. All it did was horrify me. I now
know things I wish I'd never learned. For example: snakes can't close their
eyes; no eyelids. Isn't that disgusting? Imagine a snake lying on a rock, just
peering and peering and _peering_ at you, never blinking, never closing its
eyes, for all eternity.
They don't piss, either. Their bodily waste emission is a sort of pasty
substance. They conserve bodily fluids, getting most of what they need from
the prey they devour.
They have two kinds of locomotion. They undulate when they want to move
fast; otherwise, they walk on their ribs. They have no vocal chords. They
smell with their tongues. They can't hear; they register your approach by
vibrations on the ground. (Hence, the heavy, stomping walk I adopt whenever I
suspect my surroundings).
I used to buy flashcards at every zoo and natural history museum I
visited. I can now identify almost any snake in existence and tell you all
about its habits, physiology, habitat, and prey.
The acquisition of so much knowledge did not dissipate my ophidian
fears. On the contrary, the ways I could consciously and unconsciously terrify
myself seemed to multiply geometrically. I responded accordingly. After
learning about urban snakes, I moved into an apartment that was at least six
blocks away from the nearest patch of grass. I refused to visit a cousin
living in a trailer; I knew that snakes get into the plumbing and walls of
mobile homes. I did everything I could think of to ensure I would never again
see another one.
But the dream always begins the same way.
****
"Have you seen the papers today?" I ask Dr. Seltzer.
"No."
"A man in Texas walks into a major discount department store. He goes
to the automotive department and reaches up to pull down an oil filter. Puts




Page 3
his hand atop a stack of these things." I mime him reaching above his head.
"And he gets bitten by a rattle snake."
"In the _store_?"
"In the store."
"How does that make you feel?"