"Aldiss, Brian W - Short Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Aldiss Brian W)

man for working in with people"
"If you feel it's necessary," Westermark said. "Though I've
seen enough of your equipment for a while."
The pencil moved, the smooth voice proceeded. "Good. A
great man for working in with people, and I'm sure you and
Mr. Westermark will soon find you are glad to have him
around. Remember, he's there to help both of you."
Janet smiled, and said from the island of her chair, trying
to smile at him and Stackpole, "I'm sure that everything will
work" She was interrupted by her husband, who rose to his
feet, letting his hands drop to his sides and saying, turning
slightly to address thin air, "Do you mind if I say good-bye to
Nurse Simmons?"

Her voice no longer wavered
"Everything will be all right, I'm sure," she said hastily.
And Stackpole nodded at her, conspiratorially agreeing to see
her point of view.
"We'll all get on fine, Janet," he said. She was in the swift
process of digesting that unexpected use of her Christian
name, and the administrator was also giving her the sort of
encouraging smile so many people had fed her since Wester-
mark was pulled out of the ocean off Casablanca, when her
husband, still having his lonely conversation with the air, said,
"Of course, I should have remembered."
His right hand went half way to his foreheador his heart
Janet wonderedand then dropped, as he added, "Perhap
she'll come round and see us some time." Now he turned an
was smiling faintly at another vacant space with just th
faintest nod of his head, as if slightly cajoling. "You'd lik
that, wouldn't you, Janet?"
She moved her head, instinctively trying to bring her eye
into his gaze as she replied vaguely, "Of course, darling." He
voice no longer wavered when she addressed his absen
attention.

There was sunlight through which they could see each other
"There was sunlight in one corner of the room, coming
through the windows of a bay angled towards the sun. For a
moment she caught, as she rose to her feet, her husband's
profile with the sunlight behind it. It was thin and withdrawn.
Intelligent: she had always thought him over-burdened with
his intelligence, but now there was a lost look there, and she
thought of the words of a psychiatrist who had been called in
on the case earlier: "You must understand that the waking
brain is perpetually lapped by the unconscious."

Lapped by the unconscious
Fighting the words away, she said, addressing the smile of
the administratorthat smile must have advanced his career