"William Tenn - The Human Angle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tenn William)

out that getting inside and closing the door made it return!"
"
Yeah, he 's a great figurer, " I said bitterly. This I hadn't bargained for. This I
wouldn 't have helped to bring about. "And he 'll probably figure out a very plausible
story to tell the people in your time to explain how the whole thing happened. Why
should he work his head off in the twentieth century when he can be an outstanding,
hero-worshipped celebrity in the twenty-fifth? "
"
But what will happen if they ask him to paint merely one pictureтАФ "
"
He'll probably tell them he 's already done his work and feels he can no longer add
anything of importance to it. He'll no doubt end up giving lectures on himself. Don 't
worry, he 'll make out. It 's you I'm worried about. You're stuck here. Are they likely
to send a rescue party after you?"
Mr. Glescu shook his head miserably. "Every scholar who wins the award has to
sign a waiver of responsibility, in case he doesn't return. The machine may be used
only once in fifty yearsтАФand by that time, some other scholar will claim and be
given the right to witness the storming of the Bastille, the birth of Gautama Buddha
or something of the sort. No, I'm stuck here, as you phrased it. Is it very bad, living
in this period? "
I slapped him on the shoulder. I was feeling very guilty. "Not so bad. Of course,
you 'll need a social security card, and I don 't know how you go about getting one at
your age. And possiblyтАФI don 't know for sureтАФthe F.B.I. or immigration
authorities may want to question you, since you're an illegal alien, kind of."
He looked appalled. "Oh, dear! That 's quite bad enough! "
And then I got the idea. "No, it needn 't be. Tell you what. Morniel has a social
security cardтАФhe had a job a couple of years ago. And he keeps his birth certificate
in that bureau drawer along with other personal papers. Why don't you just assume
his identity? He'll never show you up as an imposter! "
"Do you think I could? Won't I beтАФwon't his friendsтАФhis relativesтАФ "
"Parents both dead, no relatives I ever heard about. And I told you I'm the closest
thing to a friend he 's got. " I examined Mr. Glescu thoughtfully. "You could get away
with it. Maybe grow a beard and dye it blond. Things like that. Naturally, the big
problem would be earning a living. Being a specialist on Mathaway and the art
movements that derived from him wouldn't get you fed an awful lot right now. "
He grabbed at me. "I could paint! I've always dreamed of being a painter! I don 't
have much talent, but there are all sorts of artistic novelties I know about, all kinds of
graphic innovations that don 't exist in your time. Surely that would be enoughтАФeven
without talentтАФto make a living for me on some third- or fourth-rate level!"
It was. It certainly was. But not on the third- or fourth-rate level. On the first. Mr.
Glescu-Morniel Mathaway is the finest painter alive today. And the unhappiest.
"What's the matter with these people? " he asked me wildly after his last exhibition.
"Praising me like that! I don't have an ounce of real talent in me; all my work, all, is
completely derivative. I've tried to do something, anything, that was completely my
own, but I'm so steeped in Mathaway that I just can 't seem to make my own
per-sonality come through. And those idiotic critics go on rav-ing about meтАФand
the work isn't even my own! "
"
Then whose is it?" I wanted to know.
"Mathaway 's, of course," he said bitterly. "We thought there couldn 't be a time