"Theodore Sturgeon - That Low" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sturgeon Theodore)

"I'm not interested in gossip," she said, and it was the only cautionary thing
she said in the entire interview. "I know about people, that's all."
He said, "Ever since I could walk and talk, people have been against me. I can
whip one or two or sometimes half a

dozen or more, but by and large I'm outnumbered. I'm tired. Sometimes I think
I'll check out."
"Are you going to ask me if you should?"
"No. If I will. You see, I think about it all the time. Sometimes I---"
"All right," she said. "As long as you understand that I don't give advice. I
just tell about what's going to happen."
"What's going to happen?"
"Give me a check."
"What?"

"Give me a check. No-don't write on it. just give it to me.pp
"But-"

"YOU wouldn't pay me afterward."
"Now look, my word's as good as--" and then he looked into the eyes. He got
out his checkbook. She took a pen and wrote on the check.
She gave it back to him and he looked at it and said, "That's foolish."
"You have it, though."
"Yes, I have, but--"
"Sign it then," she said casually, "or go away."
He signed it. "Well?"
She hesitated. There was something-
"Well?" be rapped again. "What'll I do? I'm tired of all this persecution."
"I take it you're asking me what you shall do-not what you should or will do."
"Lawyer's talk, huh."
"Laws," she said. "Yes." She wet her lips. "You shall live a long and unhappy
life." Then she put away the check.
Maxwell looked after it, longingly. "It can't be unhappier than it is."

"That may well be."
"Then I don't want to live a long life."
"But you shall."
"Not if I don't want to," he said grimly. "I tell you, I'm tired. t?
She shook her head. "It's gone too far," she said, not unkindly. "You can't
change it."
He got up. "I can. Anytime, I can. Then you'll be wrong, won't you?"
"I'm not wrong," said Mrs. Hallowell.
"I'll kill myself," said Maxwell, and that was when she told him he couldn't.
He was very angry, but she did not give him back his check. By the time he
thought of stopping payment on it, it had cleared the bank. He went on living
his life.
The amount of money he bad paid Mrs. Hallowell dug
quite a bole, but for a surprisingly long time be was able
to walk around it. However, be did nothing to fill it up, and
inevitably he had the choice of facing his creditors or killing