"Spider Robinson - The End of the Painbow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

"We were one that night. I know a lot of time has passed sinceтАФI don't know about you, but I
remember it real good. For a few minutes there we were one, in telepathic communion, and not for the
first time, either. So when it was over we hurt. That's why everybody hurtsтАФbecause they're not
telepathic. And it's a lot worse when you know what you're missing. So we all decided that if we could
do it twice with the help of Callahan and the McDonald brothers, maybe in twenty years or so of trying
we could learn to do it for ourselves. We knew the potential was there. And we agreed it was worth
trying. This place was going to be a kind of casual workshop, a seminar in getting telepathic." Thoughtful
silence.
"We've all kind of drifted apart some in the last year or two," I said. "Nobody's fault; none of us had
a home big enough to hold all of us, that's all. Now we do. Have we drifted so far away from that night in
the woods that we no longer want to try and get telepathic again? Are we content at this point to simply
drink and be merry and share? Me, I'll go either way; whatever we decide. Take your time."
Long thoughtful silence.
"Do you have any specific 'ideas on how to go about getting telepathic, Jake?" Tom Hauptman
asked.
"Just the plan I suggested that night," I said. "Love each other as hard as we can, and see what
happens. And in the meantime, drink and be merry and share, to pass the time. Stick with what's worked
for us in the past, in other words. I haven't got any Six-Step Program; I don't want to turn the place into
a s├йance or an encounter session. I just want to know if it's all going somewhere ... or if it's all right here."
The Duck was so interested he forgot to look bored. He signaled Tom Hauptman for a new drink.
"I remember that night," Long-Drink McGonnigle said softly.
"I've never forgotten that night," Isham Latimer murmured, and hugged his wife Tanya to his side.
"I'll remember zat night in my grafe," Ralph von Wau Wau said.
"Like you said that night, Jake," Noah said, "maybe it'll take us twenty years to figure out how to do
that again, but I got twenty years I'm not using." A couple of people nodded.
"Being all together like that," Doc Webster rumbled, "being whole for once.. .." He shook his big
head. "Let me put it this way: I found a nuclear explosion at arm's length to be a less interesting
experience. No: I found surviving a nuclear explosion at arm's length less interesting. I don't know about
the rest of you monkeys, but ... no, that's the point: I do know about the rest of you monkeys. That's
what we're all here for, all right."
And he spun on his heel, as gracefully as someone who weighed less than four hundred pounds,
bellowed, "To us!" and fired the first shot of what became a thundering cannonade of glasses and coffee
mugs into the fireplace. The cheer was as loud as the explosion.
I emptied my own mug quickly. I was smiling as I lobbed it. Not one of my clientele had needed to
be told that this once, for this toast, I didn't mind them throwing mugs as well as glassesтАФthat it was
more important that every one of us be in on the toast. Maybe the task we had set ourselves would take
us twenty years, but we had already made a start.
Then I thought of something. Sure enough, there was one customer in the whole house who still had a
drink in his hand.
"Hey Duck," I called, just loudly enough to be heard over the general celebration. At once it dropped
several decibels.
The Duck fixed an insouciant eye on me. "Yah."
"You in?"
He looked slowly around the room, meeting pair after pair of eyes. Then he looked down into his
drinkтАФa shot glass of Cherry Heering: who else would order such a thing after drinking beer?тАФfor a
minute, and returned that direct, piercing gaze of his to me. "Let me get back to you," he said.
I nodded. I knew the little flash of irritation I felt was unreasonableтАФbut I felt it nonetheless. "No
hurry."
He caught me at it. "I know. How could anyone turn down an offer to get married to several dozen
people he'd only met the night before? The ungrateful rat."