"Richard Powers - The Gold Bug Variations" - читать интересную книгу автора (Powers Richard)

briefly, everyone wanted to know something
about nothing. I shook off Dr. Ressler's
rhetorical question, agitating out of all
proportion to the intervening silence, and
busied myself with questions that were at
least answerable.
This morning, I was glad for the diversion.
By noon, I had solved a burning problem
concerning obscure wording on W-4 forms,
pointed out the Bridge and Dog Grooming
books, and located, for an earnest navigator
of sixteen, a side-by-side comparison of
Mer-cator's, Mollweide's, and Goode's
projections. I went home at noon. I've taken
to it lately, despite losing most of the hour in
the trip. I felt the urge to buy a car, not to
drive, impossible in the city, but as prep for
the increasingly likely evacuation. Home, I
swept the mailbox by limp reflex. Franklin's
note cowered in protective coloration amid
bank statements and time-limited offers. I
took it with the numbness of months. I can't
remember the flight up or breaking through
the deadbolts. I set Todd's calligraphic
scrawl on the kitchen table and began
pulling vegetables systematically from the
bin. Hysterical affectation of indifference:
make myself a bite to eat before settling
down to death. The snowstorm came back,
the hunch that sent me home for lunch, and
I tried on the idea: I'd known. Then I
remembered Ressler's definition of chance:
the die is random, but we keep rolling until
we hit necessity. Hunch long enough, and
premonition will one afternoon be waiting
for you at home. I left the vegetables
salad-bar-style across the cutting board and
sat down, worried open the seal. Stiff, white
invitation card:

Our Dearest O'Deigh, It's all over with
our mutual friend. I've just this instant
heard. The attendant at the testing center
assures me that all the instruments agree:
Dr. Ressler went down admirably. No
message, or, I should say, no new
message. I wanted to inform you right
away, naturally.

Naturally. Also naturally, no signature. He