"Philip Jose Farmer - Riverworld SS - Tales of Riverworld" - читать интересную книгу автора (Farmer Phillip Jose)

that he became very reserved about telling any M.D. that he had practiced the
healing art. He was almosf as reticent about revealing his Quest to laymen.
But how could he find the Holy Mother and the Holy Infant unless he told
people that he was searching for them?
He had awakened this morning and lain in a sweat not caused by the
temperature. After a while, he vaguely remembered a dream preceding the one
about the mockery and jeers.
He was outside the tower on top of the hill and just starting to walk down the
hill when he heard the king calling him. He turned and looked up through the
twilight that enveloped most of his dreams. Ivar the Boneless" was staring
down at him from the top of the tower. As usual, the king was half smiling.
Beside him, Ann Pullen, the queen not only of Ivar's land but of all the
bitches in the world, was leaning through a space in the top wall. Her bare
breasts were hanging over the top of the stone. Then she lifted one and
flipped it at him.
Suddenly, Sharkko the Shyster appeared beside the two. Sharkko, the man who
would have been utterly miserable if he could understand how detestable he
was. But Sharkko was unable to imagine that anyone could not like him. He had
been given solid proof, kicks, slaps, curses, and savage beatings, that he was
not loved by all. Yet his mind slid these off and kept his self-image undented
and unbreakable.
These three were the most important beings in Davis's life in Ivar's land. He
would have liked to have put them in a rocket and fired them off toward the
stars. That way, he would keep them from being resurrected somewhere
CROSSING THE DARK RIVER 5
along the River and thus avoid meeting them again. Except in his nightmares,
of course.
Later, a few hours after dawn, Davis was walking up the hill to the tower
after fishing in the River. He had caught nothing and so was not in a good
mood. That was when he met the lunatic gotten up like a clown.
"Doctor Faustroll, we presume?"
The man, who spoke in a strangely even tone, held out an invisible calling
card.
Davis glanced down at the tips of the man's thumb and first finger as if they
really were holding a card.
"Printed in the letters of fire," the man said. "But you must have a heart on
fire to see them. However, imaginary oblongs are best seen in an imaginary
unlighted triangle. The darker the place, the brighter the print. As you may
have noticed, it's late morning, and the sunlight is quite bright, At least,
they seem to be so."
The fellow, like all other insane on Earth, must have been resurrected with
all traces erased of any mental illness he had suffered there. But he was
crazy again.
His forehead was painted with some kind of mathematical formula. The area
around his eyes was painted yellow, and his nose was painted black. A green
mustache was painted on his upper lip. His mouth was lipsticked bright-red. On
his chest, a large question mark was tattooed in blue. A dried fish was
suspended on a cord reaching to his belly. His long, thick, and very black
hair was shaped into a sort of bird's nest and held in place by dry gray mud.
And, when the man bent his neck forward, he exposed the upper part of an egg