"Robert Charles Wilson - Divided by Infinity" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilson Robert Charles)

Always.
Every morning.
I donтАЩt die.
 I just become increasingly unlikely.


I spent the next few days watching television, folding laundry,
trimming my nailsтАФspinning my wheels.
I tossed SoziereтАЩs little tome into a corner and left it there.
And when I was done kidding myself, I went to see Deirdre.
I didnтАЩt even know her last name. All I knew was that she had
read SoziereтАЩs book and remained skeptical of it, and I was eager to
have my own skepticism refreshed.
You think odd things, sometimes, when youтАЩre too often
alone.
I caught Deirdre on her lunch break. Ziegler didnтАЩt come
downstairs to man the desk; the store simply closed between noon
and one every weekday. The May heat wave had broken; the sky
was a soft, deep blue, the air balmy. We sat at a sidewalk table
outside a lunch-and-coffee restaurant.
Her full name was Deirdre Frank. She was fifty and
unmarried and had run her own retail business until some legal
difficulty closed her down. She was working at Finders while she
reorganized her life. And she understood why I had come to her.
тАЬThereтАЩs a couple of tests I apply,тАЭ she said, тАЬwhenever I read
this kind of book. First, is it likely to improve anyoneтАЩs life? Which
is a trickier question than it sounds. Any number of people will tell
you they found happiness with the Scientologists or the Moonies or
whatever, but what that usually means is they narrowed their
focusтАФthey canтАЩt see past the bars of their cage. Okay, You Will
Never Die isnтАЩt a cult book, but I doubt it will make anybody a
better person.
тАЬSecond, is there any way to test the authorтАЩs claims? Soziere
aced that one beautifully, I have to admit. His argument is that
thereтАЩs no subjective experience of deathтАФyour family might die,
your friends, your grade-school teachers, the Princess of Wales, but
never you. And in some other world, you die and other people go on
living. How do you prove such a thing? Obviously, you canтАЩt. What
Soziere tries to do is infer it, from quantum physics and lots of less
respectable sources. ItтАЩs a bubble theoryтАФit floats over the
landscape, touching nothing.тАЭ
I was probably blushing by this time.
Deirdre said, тАЬYou took it seriously, didnтАЩt you? Or half
seriouslyтАжтАЭ
тАЬHalf at most. IтАЩm not stupid. But itтАЩs an appealing idea.тАЭ
Her eyes widened. тАЬAppealing?тАЭ
тАЬWellтАФthere are people whoтАЩve died. People I miss. I like to
think of them going on somewhere, even if it isnтАЩt a place I can
reach.тАЭ
She was aghast. тАЬGod, no! SoziereтАЩs book isnтАЩt a fairy tale, Mr.