"Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The Final Circle of Paradise (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

from below, like a clip.
"What kind of gadget is this?" I asked.
"A splotcher," he said gloomily. "Give it back."
I gave him back the toy.
"A splotcher," I said, "with which you splotch. And what
if you had hit me?" I looked at the wall. "Fine thing. Now you
won't get it off inside of a year. You'll have to get the wall
changed."
The boy looked up at me suspiciously. "But it's Splotchy,"
he said.
"Really - and I thought it was lemonade."
His face finally acquired a normal hue and demonstrated an
obvious resemblance to the manly features of Major General
Tuur.
"No, no, it's Splotchy."
"So?"
"It will dry up."
"And then it's really hopeless?"
"Of course not. There will simply be nothing left."
"Hmm," said I, with reservation. "However, you know best.
Let us hope so. But I am still glad that there will be nothing
left on the wall instead of on my face. What's your name?"
"Siegfried."
"And after you give it some thought?"
He gave me a long look.
"Lucifer."
"What?"
"Lucifer."
"Lucifer," said I. "Belial, Ahriman, Beelzebub, and
Azrael. How about something a little shorter? It's very
inconvenient to call for help to someone with a name like
Lucifer."
"But the doors are closed," he said and backed one step.
His face paled again.
"So what?"
He did not respond but continued to back until he reached
the wall and began to sidle along it without taking his eyes
off me. It finally dawned on me that he took me for a murderer
or a thief and. that he wanted to escape. But for some reason
he did not call for help and went by his mother's door,
continuing toward the house exit.
"Siegfried," said I, "Siegfried, Lucifer, you are a
terrible coward. Who do you think I am?" I didn't move but only
Turned to keep facing him. "I am your new boarder; your mother
has just fed me croutons and cream and you go and fire at me
and almost splotched me, and now you are afraid of me. It is I
who should be afraid of you."
All this was very much reminiscent of a scene in the
boarding school in Anyudinsk, when they brought me a boy just
like this one, the son of a sect member. Hell's bells, do I