"Robert Heinlein - Year of the Jackpot" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

"Uh . . . nobody was on the bench with me. I had my
hands in my lap. Those characters in the mixed-up clothes
were standing near by, but I wasn't paying attention. I
wasn't thinking much except that my feet hurt and I wanted
to get homeand how unbearably hot and sultry it was.
Then" Her eyes became distant, "suddenly I knew what
I had to do and it was very urgent that I do it. So I stood up
and I . . . and I" Her voice became shrill.
"Take it easy!" he said. "Don't do it again."
"Hub? Why, Mr. Breeni I wouldn't do anything like that."
"Of course not. Then what?"
"Why, you put your raincoat around me and you know
the rest." She faced him. "Say, Potiphar, what were you
doing with a raincoat? It hasn't rained in weeksthis is the
driest, hottest rainy season in years."
"In sixty-eight years, to be exact."
"Hub?"
"I carry a raincoat anyhow. Uh, just a notion of mine, but
I feel that when it does rain, it's going to rain awfully hard."
He added, "Forty days and forty nights, maybe."
She decided that he was being humorous and laughed.
He went on, "Can you remember how you got the idea?"
She swirled her glass and thought. "I simply don't know."
He nodded. "That's what I expected."
"I don't understand youunless you think I'm crazy. Do
you?"
"No. I think you had to do it and could not help it and
don't know why and can't know why."
"But you know." She said it accusingly.
"Maybe. At least I have some figures. Ever take any
interest in statistics, Meade?"
She shook her head. "Figures confuse me. Never mind
statistics1 want to know why I did what I didl"
He looked at her very soberly. "I think we're lemmings,
Meade."
She looked puzzled, then horrified. "You mean those little
furry mouselike creatures? The ones that"
"Yes. The ones that periodically make a death migration,
until millions, hundreds of millions of them drown them-
selves in the sea. Ask a lemming why he does it. If you
could get him to slow up his rush toward death, even money
says he would rationalize his answer as well as any college
graduate. But he does it because he has toand so do we."
"That's a horrid idea, Potiphar."
"Maybe. Come here, Meade. I'll show you figures that
confuse me, too." He went to his desk and opened a drawer,
took out a packet of cards. "Here's one. Two weeks ago
a man sues an entire state legislature for alienation of his
wife's affectionand the judge lets the suit be tried. Or this
onea patent application for a device to lay the globe over