"Lewis Padgett - When the Bough Breaks 1.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Padgett Lewis)

Alexander was dealing competently with the wires, his hands flickering into sight and out again as he balanced a tesseract beneath the cradle. That curious veil of knowledge gave his chubby face the debased look of senility which they had come to know so well.
"This will go on and on, you know," Calderon murmured. "Tomorrow he'll look a little less like himself than today. Next week-next month-what will he be like in a year?"
"I know." Myra's voice was an echo. "Still, I suppose we'll have to-" Her voice trailed to a halt. She stood barefoot beside her husband, watching.
"I suppose the gadget will be finished," she said, "once he connects up that last wire. We ought to take it away from him."
"Think we could?"
"We ought to try."
They looked at each other. Calderon said, "It looks like an Easter egg. I never heard of an Easter egg hurting anybody."
"I suppose we're doing him a favor, really," Myra said in a low voice. "A burnt child dreads the fire. Once a kid burns himself on a match, he stays away from matches."
They stood in silence, watching.
It took Alexander about three more minutes to succeed in his design, whatever it was. The results were phenomenally effective. There was a flash of white light, a crackle of split air, and Alexander vanished in the dazzle, leaving only a faint burnt smell behind him.
When the two could see again, they blinked distrustfully at the empty place. "Teleportation?" Myra whispered dazedly.
"I'll make sure." Calderon crossed the floor and stood looking down at a damp spot on the carpet, with Alexander's shoes in it. He said, "No. Not teleportation." Then he took a long breath. "He's gone, all right. So he never grew up and sent Bordent back in time to move in on us. It never happened."
"We weren't the first," Myra said in an unsteady, bemused voice. "There's a breaking point, that's all. How sorry I feel for the first parents who don't reach it!"
She turned away suddenly, but not so suddenly that he could not see she was crying. He hesitated, watching the door. He thought he had better not follow her just yet.