"Alexei Panshin - Farewell to Yesterdays Tomorrows" - читать интересную книгу автора (Panshin Alexei)

Holland said, “Pardon me. I have work to do.” He turned quite deliberately and walked out, his distaste
evident.

Wooley said after him, “It’s a psychological experiment.” But Holland didn’t stop.
Wooley shrugged. Then he turned back to the pencil marks and counted them. He then picked a pencil
off the desk, erased the topmost mark, and carefully added a mark at the bottom.

Then he tossed the pencil back onto the desk and turned away. Just before he got to the door, Hector
Leith came around the corner and into the room. They almost bumped into one another, stopped, and
then carefully stepped back.

Leith looked much like his picture: tiny, boyish-looking, incongruous in tie, jacket, and black overcoat.
The briefcase he carried was the last touch that made him look like a youngster playing Daddy.

He gave Wooley a bitter look and said, “What are you doing here?”

”Looking for a book.”

“Whatever it is, you can’t borrow it. Get out of here. Don’t think I don’t know the trouble you’ve made
for me around here, Wooley. Out.”

“All right, all right,” Wooley said. “I couldn’t find it anyway.”

He beat a retreat down the corridor, relieved that Leith hadn’t walked in a minute earlier. When he
reached his own office, Holland was piling papers on his desk.

“What’s this?” Wooley asked.

“I’m not staying,” Holland said. “I don’t think we’re going to work well together. They’ve got a desk I
can use in the department office until they can find me another place.”

“What’s the matter with you?” Wooley asked. “Why should you leave?”

“What’s the matter with you?” Holland asked. “ ‘They told me that nobody would stay in an office with
you, and I can’t stomach you, either. And I’d advise you not to pull any of your tricks on me.”
***


Leith, somewhat strained, closed the door behind Wooley when he left. He wondered if he should have
been less harsh. He knew that all it did was make him sound petulant, and that was something he was
trying to break himself of, even with Wooley. But it was hard.

He looked then at the strip of wood marked with little pencil lines, and smiled with slightly malicious
delight at what he saw. He picked up the pencil that Wooley had abandoned and replaced the tick that
had been erased.

The top tick was on the level of his eyes now, perhaps even a little lower, and he wondered how long it
would be before Wooley finally noticed.

He said, quite softly, “I’m growing up, Wooley. What’s your excuse?”