"Mike Resnick - Barnaby in Exile" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

Barnaby in exile



Barnaby sits in his cage, waiting for Sally to come into the
lab.
She will give him the puzzle, the same one he worked on
yesterday. But today he will not disappoint her. He has been
thinking about the puzzle all night. Thinking is fun. Today he
will do it right, and she will laugh and tell him how smart he is.
He will lay on his back and she will tickle his stomach, and say,
"Oh, what a bright young fellow you are, Barnaby!" Then Barnaby
will make a funny face and turn a somersault.
Barnaby is me.
#
It gets lonely after Sally leaves. Bud comes when it is black
and cleans my cage, but he never talks. Sometimes he forgets and
leaves the light on. Then I try to talk to Roger and his family,
but they are just rabbits and cannot make the signs. I don't think
they are very smart, anyway.
Every night when Bud comes in I sit up and smile at him. I
always make the sign for "Hello", but he doesn't answer.
Sometimes I think Bud isn't any smarter than Roger. He just pats
me on the head. Sometimes he leaves the pictures on after he
leaves.
My favorite pictures are Fred and Barney. Everything is so
bright and fast. Many times I ask Sally to bring Dino to the lab
so that I can play with him, but she never does. I like Barney,
because he is not as big or loud as Fred, and I am not big or loud
either. Also, my name is Barnaby and that is like Barney.
Sometimes, when it is black and I am all alone, I imagine that I
am Barney, and that I don't sleep in a cage at all.
#
This day it was white out, and Sally even had white on her
when she came to the lab, but it all turned to water.
Today we had a new toy. It looks like the thing on Doctor's
desk, with lots of little things that look like flat grapes.
Sally told me that she would show me something and then I should
touch the grape that had the same picture on it. She showed me a
shoe, and a ball, and an egg, and a star, and a square.
I did the egg and the ball wrong, but tomorrow I will do them
right. I think more every day. Like Sally says I am a very bright
young fellow.
#
We have spent many days with the new toy, and now I can speak
to Sally with it, just by touching the right grapes.
She will come into the lab and say, "How are you this
morning, Barnaby?", and I will touch the grapes that say, "Barnaby
is fine" or "Barnaby is hungry".
What I really want to say is "Barnaby is lonely" but there is