"Avram Davidson - The Golem" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davidson Avram)

on his program card." She counted off on her fingers. "Television Appreciation and Criticism, Small Boat
Building, Social Adjustment, The American Dance … The American Dance—nu, Gumbeiner—"

"Contemporary Ceramics," her husband said, relishing the syllables. "A fine boy, Bud. A pleasure to have
him for a boarder."

"After thirty years spent in these studies," the stranger, who had continued to speak unnoticed, went on,
"he turned from the theoretical to the pragmatic. In ten years' time he had made the most titanic discovery
in history: he made mankind, all mankind, superfluous; he made me."

"What did Tillie write in her last letter?" asked the old man.

The old woman shrugged.

"What should she write? The same thing. Sidney was home from the Army, Naomi has a new
boyfriend—"

"He made ME!"

"Listen, Mr. Whatever-your-name-is," the old woman said, "maybe where you came from is different,
but in this country you don't interrupt people while they're talking … Hey. Listen—what do you mean,
he made you? What kind of talk is that?"

The stranger bared all his teeth again, exposing the too-pink gums.

"In his library, to which I had a more complete access after his sudden and as yet undiscovered death
from entirely natural causes, I found a complete collection of stories about androids, from Shelley's
Frankenstein through Capek's R.U.R. to Asimov's—"

"Frankenstein?" said the old man with interest. "There used to be a Frankenstein who had the soda-
wasser place on Halstead Street—a Litvack, nebbich."

"What are you talking?" Mrs. Gumbeiner demanded. "His name was Frankenthal, and it wasn't on
Halstead, it was on Roosevelt."

"—clearly shown that all mankind has an instinctive antipathy towards androids and there will be an
inevitable struggle between them—"

"Of course, of course!" Old Mr. Gumbeiner clicked his teeth against his pipe. "I am always wrong, you
are always right. How could you stand to be married to such a stupid person all this time?"

"I don't know," the old woman said. "Sometimes I wonder, myself. I think it must be his good looks."
She began to laugh. Old Mr. Gumbeiner blinked, then began to smile, then took his wife's hand.

"Foolish old woman," the stranger said. "Why do you laugh? Do you not know I have come to destroy
you?"

"What?" old Mr. Gumbeiner shouted. "Close your mouth, you!" He darted from his chair and struck the
stranger with the flat of his hand. The stranger's head struck against the porch pillar and bounced back.