"Bud Webster - Christus Destitutus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Webster Bud)

CHISTUS DESTITUTUS
Bud Webster
Jesus lay dying in a five-dollar flop. Dark against the sheets, his face and hands were marked and bent by
every day of his seventy years; his thin body barely made a dent in the old mattress.

None of the beds in the shelter's clinic were empty. There was no shortage of old men too poor for the
hospitals or for whom there was simply no room elsewhere. Once, he had tended the hopeless old men
in these beds; now, he was just one more of them.

"Yeshua bar-Yosef.├втВмтАв The voice was lifeless; the words a statement, not a question. It was his birth
name, no one had called him that for two thousand years.

He opened his eyes.

"Oh,├втВмтАв he said, ├втВм┼Уit's you. What are you doing here?"

The old man glanced down the aisle at the floor supervisor. If he'd heard the voices, he gave no sign. The
words weren't English├втВмтАЭweren't any Earthly tongue├втВмтАЭ, but it wouldn't matter anyway; there was always
the low murmur of voices here. Some patients prayed, some babbled, or cried out in pain; if you were
here long enough, you got used to it.

Vic wouldn't see the angel standing over the old man's bed.
****
"I am here for you,├втВмтАв the angel said.

"Yeah, well, I didn't call for you. Go away."

"It is not permitted."

"By who? Him? Screw Him,├втВмтАв the old man said hotly. ├втВм┼УIt's not His life. It never was. Leave me
alone, Uriel."

"It does not have to be your time."

"Bullshit. It's been my time for the past twenty centuries. It's always been my time. Go away and let me
die in peace."

"It is not permitted. You know this."

The old man sighed; his lungs crackled, and it turned into a coughing fit.

"'Angelic compassion',├втВмтАв he finally managed. ├втВм┼УYou're inhuman. You can't know."

"What can I not know?"

"What your compassion is for, that's what. What a joke.├втВмтАв The old man reached for a chipped mug on
the table next to the bed. The messenger watched, but did nothing to help.

The cup shook as he tried to lift it to his lips, spilling water on the worn blanket.