"Eddings, David - Regina's Song V2.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

I made fairly frequent trips to Seattle that fall. I didn't
want the university to slip into past tense in my mind, so
I kept it right in front of me. As long as I was there
anyway, I did a bit of preliminary work on my Melville-
Milton theory. The more I dug into Paradise Regained,
the more convinced I became that Billy Budd was
derivative.
It was in late November, I think, when Mr. and Mrs.
Greenleaf and I actually got some good news for a
change. Renata-we had agreed among ourselves by
then that it almost certainly was Renata in that private
sanitarium-woke up. She stopped talking exclusively in
twin-speak and began answering questions in English.
Our frequent contacts with Dr. Fallon, the chief of staff
at the institution, had made us aware that twin-speak
was common-so common, in fact, that it had a scientific
name-"cryptolalia." Dr. Fallon told us that it shows up in
almost all cases of multiple births. The secret language
of twins isn't all that complicated, but a set of
quintuplets can invent a language so complex that its
grammar book would run to three volumes.
When Renata stopped speaking in cryptolalia, though,
her first question suggested that she wasn't out of the
woods yet. When a patient wakes up and says, "Who
am I?" it usually gets the psychiatrist's immediate
attention.
The private sanitarium where she was being treated
was up at Lake Stevens, and I rode up with Les and
Inga on a rainy Sunday afternoon to visit her.
The rest home was several cuts above a state-
supported mental hospital, which is usually built to
resemble various other state institutions where people
are confined. This one was back among the trees on
about five acres near the lakeshore, and there was a
long, curving drive leading to a large, enclosed interior
court, complete with a gate and a guard. It was
obviously an institution of some kind, but a polite one. It
was a place where wealthy people could stash relatives
whose continued appearance in public had be-come
embarrassing.
Dr. Wallace Fallon had an imposing office, and he was
a slightly balding man in his midfifties. He cautioned us
not to push Renata.
"Sometimes all it takes to restore an amnesiac's
memory is a familiar face or a familiar turn of phrase.
That's why I've asked you three to stop by, but let's be
very, very careful. I'm fairly sure that Renata's amnesia
is a way to hide from the death of her sister. That's
something she's not ready to face yet."
"She will recover, won't she?" Inga demanded.