"Ian Watson - The FireWorm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

тАЬDoes yours, sometimes?тАЭ Gavin asked.

At this very moment it was trying to, and Ted walked on awkwardly. Just the other evening, in his room,
he had drawn a naked woman on a sheet of paper torn from an exercise book. A woman with breasts
and a smooth sweep of flesh between her legs, like a flap glued down. Soon he had ripped the drawing
into tiny pieces and flushed them down the lavatory in case his mother discovered. Some scraps had
floated; he had to flush the pan again and again.

тАЬI havenтАЩt told my Mam, but IтАЩve got hairs growing on me down here,тАЭ he said to Gavin.

тАЬHave you? ThatтАЩsnatural .тАЭ Somehow Gavin looked as though he deplored this development. тАЬSo have
I,тАЭ the older boy added after a while. тАЬTheyтАЩre called the short and curlies.тАЭ

The sky had been clouding over. A hooter sounded from the river, just as an air-raid siren might sound.

A thought occurred to Ted. тАЬDo women have short and curlies too?тАЭ

тАЬYes!тАЭ snapped Gavin, a peevish note in his voice. тАЬGibbon brought a picture magazine to school last
term. I glanced at it.тАЭ

Ted brooded about his drawing. It had been copied, to the best of his memory, from a photo of the
statue of a goddess in an encyclopaedia. And it had beenwrong . No wonder he had felt so odd about it,
and baffled as to what a husband and wife were supposed to do, as regards that seamless flap of skin
down there.

тАЬIтАЩd like to see a magazine like that.тАЭ

тАЬWhat for?тАЭ asked Gavin.

тАЬYouтАЩll not laugh?тАЭ

тАЬI promise I wonтАЩt.тАЭ

Ted explained about the drawing. Gavin smiled.

Rain started to spit in their faces. A Vespa putted along the nearby road, the rider perched upon the
scooterтАЩs ample casing as though upon two creamy metal buttocks.

Dreams could trap and trick you. Ted was hastening through the giant craneтАЩs shadow. He could hear
noises up there: rattling, clanking.

He had to look up! Scrambling out along the jib above him was тАж Bill Gibbon, bare body bristling all
over with hairs. A тАЬgibbonтАЭ was the name for some kind of ape, Ted knew. Therefore Gibbon was a
hairy beast. The person overhead looked as massive as a gorilla. Could that be GibbonтАЩs elder brother?
Or both of them fused together?

Now that Ted had spotted him, Gibbon began gibbering and capering. One huge paw grabbed his groin
in preparation for a ball-fight. Catching hold of a loose hawser, Tarzan-style, Gibbon swung down.

Ted fled toward the tall white lighthouse which seemed far away. Gibbon easily overhauled him.