"Theodore Sturgeon - Fluffy" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sturgeon Theodore)

A question like that was, to Ransome, the pressing of a button which released ordered phrases.
"Cats," he said oratorically, "are without doubt the most self-centred, ungrateful, hypocritical creatures on
this or any other earth. Spawned from a mesalliance between Lilith and SatanтАФ"
Fluffy's eyes widened. "Ah! An antiquarian!" he whispered.
"тАФthey have the worst traits of both. Their best qualities are their beauty of form and of motion, and
even these breathe evil. Women are the ficklest of bipeds, but few women are as fickle as, by nature, any
cat is. Cats are not true. They are impossibilities, as perfection is impossible. No other living creature
moves with utterly perfect grace. Only the dead can so perfectly relax. And nothingтАФsimply nothing at
allтАФtranscends a cat's incomparable insincerity."
Fluffy purred.
"Pussy ! Sit-by-the-fire-and-sing!" spat Ransome. "Smiling up all toadying and yellow-eyed at
bearers of liver and salmon and catnip! Soft little puffball, bundle of joy, playing with a ball on a string;
making children clap their soft hands to see you, while your mean little brain is viciously alight with the
pictures your play calls up for you. Bite it to make it bleed; hold it till it all but throttles; lay it down and
step about it daintily; prod it with a gentle silken paw until it moves again, and then pounce. Clasp it in
your talons then, lift it, roll over with it, sink your cruel teeth into it while you pump out its guts with your
hind feet. Ball on a string! Playactor!"

FLUFFY fawned. "To quote you, that is the prettiest piece of emotional clap-trap that these old
ears have ever heard. A triumph in studied spontaneity. A symphony in cynicism. A poem in perception.
The unqualifiedтАФ"
Ransome grunted.
He deeply resented this flamboyant theft of all his pet phrases, but his lip twiched nevertheless. The
cat was indeed an observant animal.
"тАФepitome of understatement," Fluffy finished smoothly. "To listen to you, one would think that you
would like to slaughter earth's felinity."
"I would," gritted Ransome.
"It would be a favor to us," said the cat. "We would keep ourselves vastly amused, eluding you and
laughing at the effort it cost you. Humans lack imagination."
"Superior creature," said Ransome ironically, "Why don't you do away with the human race, if you
find us a bore?"
"You think we couldn't?" responded Fluffy. "We can outthink, outrun and outbreed your kind. But
why should we? As long as you act as you have for these last few thousand years, feeding us, sheltering
us and asking nothing from us but our presence for purposes of admiration тАФwhy then, you may remain
here.
Ransome guffawed. "Nice of you! But listenтАФstop your bland discussion of the abstract and tell me
some things I want to know. How can you talk, and why did you pick me to talk to?"
Fluffy settled himself. "I shall answer the question socratically. Socrates was a Greek, and so I shall
begin with your last question. What do you do for a living?"
"Why IтАФI have some investments and a small capital, and the interestтАФ" Ransome stopped, for the
first time fumbling for words. Fluffy was nodding knowingly.
"All right, all right. Come clean. You can speak freely."
Ransome grinned. "Well, if you must knowтАФand you seem toтАФI am a practically permanent
house-guest. I have a considerable fund of stories and a flair for telling them; I look presentable and act
as if I were a gentleman. I negotiate, at times, small loansтАФ"
"A loan," said Fluffy authoritatively, "is something one intends to repay."
"We'll call them loans," said Ransome airily "Also at one time and another, I exact a reasonable fee
for certain services renderedтАФ"
"Blackmail," said the cat.
"Don't be crude. All in all, I find life a comfortable and engrossing thing."