"Ron Goulart - Conversations with My Knees" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goulart Ron)

large potted cactus.

I avoided his attempt to conk me with the heavy orange pot, jabbed
him in the midsection. He yowled, toppled back against the deck railing.
Along with the potted cactus, he went falling down to the shaggy slanting
hillside some ten feet below.

The pot shattered, sending orange shards into the new night, and the
cactus shot up a few feet and then bounced on Bruno’s crewcut head. He
got, shakily, to his feet to go running, shakily, away into the night.

I spun around, ready to face the fake agent Mickens.

My front door stood open, the living room was empty.

“Damn it all,” commented my right knee, “you let both of those bozos
get clean away.”

“Now, now. He did pretty well, considering he’s just getting used to
being a crackerjack fighting man.”

“Yeah, I suppose so, sis. And, hell, they’ll be more spies and secret
agents dropping in from now on. Sure, we can question them.”

“More?” I asked.

****

It was around about midnight that I found out about another batch of
my new abilities. Since coming home from the clinic I’d been sleeping in
the spare bedroom. Mavis had complained, as she was driving me home
from the Slesinger, that my new knees made funny squeaking noises that
might keep her awake, especially if I tossed and turned as I usually did at
night. “That’s disturbing enough,” she pointed out, “without adding metallic
sound effects.”

At about ten o’clock that fateful night Mavis was fluffing the pillows on
the narrow bed I was temporarily occupying. “You’ve got to use that cane I
bought you, Frank,” she said as she bent to kiss me on the cheek. “We
can’t have any more accidents like this afternoon. You could have been
seriously hurt. Not to mention that the chair cost $500.”

I hadn’t yet told my wife about my new knees or the visit from the
spurious American intelligence agents. I had said I stumbled and fell over
the rocker. “Won’t happen again, dear.”

“And do be more careful when you go hobbling out onto the deck,”
she continued. “This time only a potted cactus fell downhill, and it only cost
$129, but if you had fallen—