"David Eddings - Losers, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

"Obviously. The town intrigues me."

"Good God, why? The place is a vacuum."

"Why are you staying here then?"

"I told you. I need some time to get it all together again. This is a good place for it."

"All right." Flood's eyes were suddenly intent. "I can accept that. But what about afterward-after you get it together? You're not going to stay here, are you? Are you going back to school?"

"I don't know."

"You'll feel better about it later. Sure, it's going to take a while to get squared away, but you ought to make some plans-set some goals. If you don't, you're just going to drift. The longer you stay here, the harder it's going to be to pull yourself away."

"Damon." Raphael laughed. "You sound like you just dug out your freshman psychology text and did some brushing up."

"Well, dammit, it's true," Flood said hotly, getting to his feet. "If you stay here, you're going to get so comfortable that nobody's going to be able to blast you loose."

"We'll see."

"Promise you'll think about it."

"Sure, Damon."

"I'm serious." For some reason it seemed terribly important to him.

"All right. I'll think about it."

They looked at each other for a moment, and then let it drop.

Flood leaned down and looked out the window. "What the hell?" he said, startled. "What in God's name is he doing?" He pointed.

Raphael glanced out the window. "Oh, that's just Crazy Charlie. He's shaving his head again."

"What does he do that for?"

"Hard to say. I think God tells him to-or maybe one of his cats."

"Is he really crazy?"

"What do you think? He hears voices, he shaves his head like that once a week or so, and he's got a whole set of rituals he lives by. Doesn't that sound sort of schizophrenic?"

"Is that his real name Charlie?"

"I don't know what his real name is. That's just what I call him." "What's he doing now?"

Raphael glanced out the window again. "That's where he keeps his towel. He always wipes his head down with the same towel after he shaves. He has to lean way over like that because he's not allowed to step on that spot in front of the cupboard-either there's a big hole that goes straight down to hell or there's a dragon sleeping there, I haven't quite figured out which yet."

"Why don't they haul him off to the place with the rubber rooms?"