"Mike Resnick - Alastair Baffle's Emporium of Wonders" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

the eye could follow, the blade would drop and magically miss Alastair
BaffleтАЩs neck. There were card tricks and rope tricks and magic wands that
could fly through the air. There was a clock with the face of a beautiful
woman, and just when you lost interest in it sheтАЩd smile and speak to you.

And the most wonderful thing of all was the magic show. Oh, he
wouldnтАЩt perform it for freeтАФbut if you promised to buy a trick, and showed
him your money (usually fifty cents would do, but if you didnтАЩt have it, once
in a while heтАЩd agree to sell you a twenty-five-cent trick), heтАЩd spend half an
hour showing you all the new tricks that had arrived since your last visit.

I thought only magicians would frequent the store, but the clientele
didnтАЩt look like the kind of magicians you saw on stage. (No, IтАЩd never seen
a magic show on stage when I was a kid, but I saw all the ads for them, and
I knew that magicians were long lean guys who looked good in white tie and
tails like Fred Astaire, and were always assisted by scantily clad women
who made me eager to grow up.)

But the few people who I saw coming and going werenтАЩt like that at all.
One of them looked just like Paul Muni in one of those movies where heтАЩs
on the lam from the law. Another was all decked out in silks and satins, and
wore a turban with a glittering jewel on the front of it. There were women,
too; not the kind you expected to see on stage, but with elegant hats and
veils, exotic make-up, and dark gloves. Those were the days when a lot of
women wore wraps that were made from foxes that still had the heads
attached. One day I saw Alastair Baffle wave good-bye to a woman who
was leaving the store as I was entering. Then he said something, not in
English, to one of the fox heads, and I could have sworn it looked up and
winked at him.

My allowance back then was a quarter a week. I used to go there
whenever I had fifty cents to buy a trickтАФbut since the subway cost a
quarter each way, that was about once a month. I kept wondering why no
other kid had discovered the almost-free magic showтАФand then I met
Maury.

HeтАЩd been going to the store for more than a year, same as me but on
different Saturdays, gaping at all the wonders and getting his magic show in
exchange for buying a trick.

тАЬAh! Young Mister Silver!тАЭ said Alastair Baffle when I entered his
Emporium that Saturday morning. тАЬThere is someone here I think you
should meet.тАЭ

I was hoping it was a half-dressed magicianтАЩs assistant, but it was
only another boy, dark-haired, kind of skinny, a couple of inches shorter
than me.

тАЬMister Silver, say hello to Mister Gold.тАЭ