"Arkady & Boris Strugatsky - The Ugly Swans" - читать интересную книгу автора (Strugatski Arkady)

"Leave him," said Diana.
Victor stopped.
"Goddamnit, it's raining," he said.
"Don't be a fool," said the slimy. "Leave me . . . here. . . ."
Victor, not saying a word, strode up the steps three at a time, reached the door, and walked into the
lobby.
"Cretin," whispered the slimy and dropped his head on Victor's shoulder.
"You dolt," said Diana, catching up with Victor and grabbing his sleeve. "You'll kill him, idiot! Get him out
of here right away and put him back under the rain. Right away, you hear? What are you standing here
for?"
The Ugly Swans 43

"You're all crazy/' sputtered Victor.
He turned around, kicked the door open, and went out onto the porch. The rain seemed to be waiting for
his return. Before it had been drizzling lazily, and now it poured down in torrents. The slimy moaned softly.
He raised his head and suddenly began panting like a hunted animal. Victor was still dawdling, instinctively
looking around for some shelter.
"Put me down," said the slimy.
"In a puddle?" asked Victor, sarcastic and bitter.
"That's unimportant. Put me down."
Victor carefully lowered him onto the ceramic tiles of the porch. The slimy stretched out his arms and
legs. His right leg was twisted unnaturally; in the strong light of the porch lamp his great forehead seemed
blue-white. Victor sat down next to him on the steps. He really felt like going back into the lobby, but that
was unthinkableтАФto leave an injured man in a heavy rain and seek shelter in a warm place.
"How many times have I been called a fool today?" he thought, wiping his face with his hand. "Pretty
often. And there's a grain of truth in it too, insofar as a fool, alias dolt alias cretin and so on, is an
ignoramus, persisting in his ig-norance. Look at that, he's doing better in the rain. His eyes are opened,
they're not so terrible looking. A slimy," he thought. "Really, a slimy rather than a four-eyes. How the hell
did he get himself into a trap? And how come there are traps around here? It's the second slimy I've met
today, and both of them in trouble. They get in trouble and they get me in trouble."
Diana was in the lobby on the phone. Victor listened.
"The leg. . . . Yes. The bone is shattered . . . Okay. . . .
All right -- Quickly, we're waiting."
Through the glass door Victor saw her hang up the phone and run upstairs. "Something's gone wrong
with the slimies in this town. Too much fuss around them. For some reason they've gotten into everyone's
way, even the middle-school di-rector's had it with them. Even Lola," he remembered suddenly.
44 The Ugly Swans

"It seems she also had something to say about them." He looked down at the slimy. The slimy was looking
at him.
"How do you feel?" asked Victor. The slimy didn't answer. "Do you need anything?" asked Victor,
raising his voice. "A sip of gin?"
"Don't yell," said the slimy. "I can hear you."
"Does it hurt?" Victor sympathized.
"What do you think?"
"An exceptionally unpleasant man," thought Victor. "How-ever, the hell with himтАФwe'll go our separate
ways. And he's in pain."
"Don't worry," he said out loud. "Try to stand it for a few more minutes. They're coming for you."
The slimy didn't answer. Wrinkles appeared on his fore-head; his eyes closed. He looked like a
corpseтАФflat and immo-bile in the pouring rain. Diana ran out onto the porch with a doctor's bag, sat down