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

We moved in a couple of years before the millennium, and we were
reasonably content. I suppose some of the others thought we were gay,
though straight or gay I donтАЩt know what they thought a couple of
ninety-year-old geezers could do when the lights were out. We didnтАЩt figure
to see much of the future, so we talked about the past. WeтАЩd talk about JFK
and Nixon, and about Nashua and Swaps. WeтАЩd talk about Sugar Ray
Robinson and Jersey Joe Walcott, about the ones who lived and the
onesтАФthere were so many of them, like Marilyn and James Dean and Brian
PiccoloтАФwho didnтАЩt.

And sooner or later the conversation would come around to Alastair
BaffleтАЩs Emporium of Wonders, where weтАЩd met so many years ago.

тАЬWhat a place it was!тАЭ said Maury. тАЬYou know, I really believed that he
could perform magic.тАЭ

тАЬAh, come on, Maury,тАЭ I said. тАЬHe sold tricks. Every one of them had a
gimmick. You always bought one, and he always showed you how it
worked.тАЭ

тАЬI didnтАЩt say you or I could do magic,тАЭ replied Maury. тАЬI said I thought
he could.тАЭ

тАЬYouтАЩre turning into a senile old man,тАЭ I told him.
 тАЬAnd youтАЩre turning into a grouchy old one,тАЭ he shot back. тАЬHell, I was
a kid. My whole life, the whole world was ahead of me, a billion possibilities.
Why shouldnтАЩt I believe in magic?тАЭ

тАЬHe never called himself a magician,тАЭ I said. тАЬI think the term is
illusionist.тАЭ

тАЬHe never called himself anything,тАЭ said Maury stubbornly. тАЬBut he
could make a parrot vanish, or turn it back into an egg, and when I was
eleven years old that was magic enough for me.тАЭ

тАЬHe was good, wasnтАЩt he?тАЭ I said. тАЬI wonder why we never saw him
on TV or in the movies.тАЭ

тАЬIf your film lab can make Superman fly or send the Millennium
Falcon out at light speeds, what do you need a real magician for?тАЭ

тАЬHe wasnтАЩt a real magician,тАЭ I said.

тАЬHe was real enough for you and me,тАЭ said Maury. тАЬWe kept going
back, didnтАЩt we?тАЭ

тАЬUntil we outgrew him.тАЭ

тАЬI never outgrew him,тАЭ insisted Maury. тАЬLife just kept getting more and
more complicated, and I had other things to do.тАЭ