"The Planners by Kate Wilhelm" - читать интересную книгу автора (1969)

where they could eat them. At five the monkeys were returned
to Kelly, who wheeled them away one by one back to the
stockroom. None of them had performed all the tasks, al-
though two had gone through part of them before the time
ran out.
Waiting for the last of the monkeys to be taken back to its
quarters, Stu asked, "What did you do to that bunch of idiots
this morning? By the time I got them, they all acted dazed."
Darin told him about Adam's performance; they were both
laughing when Kelly returned. Stu's laugh turned to some-
thing that sounded almost like a sob. Darin wanted to tell
him about the school Kelly must have attended, thought
better of it, and walked away instead.
His drive home was through the darkening forests of
interior Florida for sixteen miles on a narrow straight road.
"Of course, I don't mind living here," Lea had said once,
nine years ago when the Florida appointment had come
through. And she didn't mind. The house was air-conditioned;
the family car, Lea's car, was air-conditioned; the back yard
had a swimming pool big enough to float the Queen Mary.
A frightened, large-eyed Florida girl did the housework, and
Lea gained weight and painted sporadically, wrote sporadi-
callypoetryand entertained faculty wives regularly. Darin
suspected that sometimes she entertained faculty husbands
also.
"Oh, Professor Dimples, one hour this evening? That will
be fifteen dollars, you know." He jotted down the appoint-
ment and turned to Lea. "Just two more today and you will
have your car payment. How about that!" She twined slinky
arms about his neck, pressing tight high breasts hard against
him. She had to tilt her head slightly for his kiss. "Then your
turn, darling. For free." He tried to kiss her; something
stopped his tongue, and he realized that the smile was on the
outside only, that the opening didn't really exist at all.
He parked next to an MG, not Lea's, and went inside the
house where the martinis were always snapping cold.
"Darling, you remember Greta, don't you? She is going to
give me lessons twice a week. Isn't that exciting?"
"But you already graduated." Darin murmured. Greta was
not tall and not long-legged. She was a little bit of a thing.
He thought probably he did remember her from somewhere
or other, vaguely. Her hand was cool in his.
"Greta has moved in; she is going to lecture on modern art
for the spring semester. I asked her for private lessons and
she said yes."
"Greta Farrel," Darin said, still holding her small hand.
They moved away from Lea and wandered through the open
windows to the patio where the scent of orange blossoms was
heavy in the air.
"Greta thinks it must be heavenly to be married to a