"Robert A. Heinlein - Job, A Comedy of Justice" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

JOB: A Comedy of Justice
Robert A. Heinlein
Copyright 1984

Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth:
Therefore despise not thou the chastening of
The Almighty.
Job 5:17



Chapter 1
When thou walkest through the fire,
thou shalt not be burned.
Isaiah 43:2

THE FIRE pit was about twenty-five feet long by ten feet wide, and perhaps
two feet deep. The fire had been burning for hours. The bed of coals gave off
a blast of heat almost unbearable even back where I was seated, fifteen feet
from the side of the pit, in the second row of tourists.
I had given up my front-row seat to one of the ladies from the ship, delighted
to accept the shielding offered by her well-fed carcass. I was tempted to
move still farther back... but I did want to see the fire walkers close up. How
often does one get to view a miracle?
‚It’s a hoax,’ the Well-Traveled Man said. ‚You’ll see.’
‚Not really a hoax, Gerald,’ the Authority-on-Everything denied. ‚Just
somewhat less than we were led to expect. It won’t be the whole village -
probably none of the hula dancers and certainly not those children. One or
two of the young men, with calluses on their feet as thick as cowhide, and
hopped up on opium or some native drug, will go down the pit at a dead run.
The villagers will cheer and our kanaka friend there who is translating for us
will strongly suggest that we should tip each of the fire walkers, over and
above what we’ve paid for the luau and the dancing and this show.
‚Not a complete hoax,’ he went on. ‚The shore excursion brochure listed a
„demonstration of fire walking“. That’s what we’ll get. Never mind the talk
about a whole village of fire walkers. Not in the contract. ‚The Authority
looked smug.
‚Mass hypnosis,’ the Professional Bore announced.
I was tempted to ask for an explanation of ‚mass hypnosis’- but nobody
wanted to hear from me; I was junior - not necessarily in years but in the
cruise ship Konge Knut. That’s how it is in cruise ships: Anyone who has
been in the vessel since port of departure is senior to, anyone who joins the
ship later. The Medes and the Persians laid down this law and nothing can
change it. I had flown down in the Count Von Zeppelin, at Papeete I would fly
home in the Admiral Moffett, so I was forever junior and should keep quiet
while my betters pontificated’.
Cruise ships have the best food and, all too often, the worst conversation in
the world. Despite this I was enjoying the islands; even the Mystic and the
Amateur Astrologer and the Parlor Freudian and the Numerologist did not
trouble me, as I did not listen.