"Mike Resnick - The Lotus and the Spear" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

equally unpalatable.
First, they could eventually give up in despair and kill themselves, as four of their
young comrades had. This I could not permit.
Second, they could eventually adjust to the life of ease and idleness that was the
lot of the Kikuyu male, and come to enjoy and defend it as passionately as did the
other men of the village. This I could not foresee.
Third, I could take Murumbi's suggestion and open up the northern plains to the
Maasai or the Wakamba, but this would make a mockery of all our efforts to
establish Kirinyaga as a world for and of the Kikuyu. This I could not even consider,
for I would not allow a war that would destroy our Utopia in order to create his.
For three days and three nights I searched for another alternative. On the
morning of the fourth day, I emerged from my hut, my blanket wrapped tightly about
me to protect me from the cold morning air, and lit my fire.
Ndemi was late, as usual. When he finally arrived, he was favoring his right foot,
and explained that he had twisted it on his way up my hill — but I noticed, without
surprise, that he limped on his left foot when he went off to fill my gourds with
water.
When he returned, I watched him as he went about his duties, collecting
firewood and removing fallen leaves from my boma. I had chosen him to be my
assistant, and my eventual successor, because he was the boldest and brightest of
the village children. It was Ndemi who always thought of new games for the others
to play, and he himself was always the leader. When I would walk among them, he
was the first to demand that I tell them a parable, and the quickest to understand the
hidden meaning in it.
In short, he was a perfect candidate to commit suicide in a few more years, had I
not averted that possibility by encouraging him to become my assistant.
"Sit down, Ndemi," I said as he finished collecting the last of the leaves and
throwing them on the dying embers of my fire.
He sat down next to me. "What will we study today, Koriba?" he asked.
"Today we will just talk," I said. His face fell, and I added, "I have a problem,
and I am hoping that you will provide me with an answer to it."
Suddenly he was alert and enthused. "The problem is the young men who killed
themselves, isn't it?" he said.
"That is correct," I answered him. "Why do you suppose they did it?"
He shrugged his scrawny shoulders. "I do not know, Koriba. Perhaps they were
crazy."
"Do you really think so?"
He shrugged again. "No, not really. Probably an enemy has cursed them."
"Perhaps."
"It must be so," he said firmly. "Is not Kirinyaga a Utopia? Why else would
anyone not wish to live here?"
"I want you to think back, Ndemi, to the days before you started coming to my
boma every day."
"I can remember," he said. "It was not that long ago."
"Good," I replied. "Now, can you also remember what you wanted to do?"
He smiled. "To play. And to hunt."
I shook my head. "I do not mean what you wanted to do then," I said. "Can you
remember what you wanted to do when you were a man?"
He frowned. "Take a wife, I suppose, and start a shamba."
"Why do you frown, Ndemi?" I asked.