"S. P. Somtow - Absent Thee From Felicity Awhile.." - читать интересную книгу автора (Somtow S. P)

scene so heartrending I could have drowned in a sea of molasses;
arranging himself into elaborate poses that could have been
plucked from the Acropolis; and uttering each iambic pentameter
as though he were the New York Philharmonic and the Mormon
Tabernacle Choir all rolled into one. He was dying, and he clutched
at Horatio, and he said, measuring each phrase for the right
mixture of honey and gall—
Absent thee from felicity awhile…
To tell my story.
and was just about to fall, with consummate grace, into
Horatio’s arms, and you could feel the collective catch of breath,
the palpable silence except for the quiet buzzing, when Horatio
drew a revolver from his doublet and emptied it into Sir Francis’s
stomach.
After the aliens departed from the theater, the play went on,
since Hamlet was dead anyway, and afterwards I walked home. I
saw peculiar poles with metallic knobs on them, all along
Broadway every couple of blocks, and there were a couple of
overturned Yellow cabs, but the old Chevy was gone from the store
window. Good for them.
In the morning I met Amy. I told her about what had
happened.
“When you get to just before your accident, try to jump out of
the car or something. Keep trying, Amy, just keep trying.”
She chewed her doughnut, deliberating. “I don’t know.”
“Well, we’ve got another six million, nine hundred thousand,
nine hundred and ninety-four years to try in. So keep at it, okay?”
She seemed unconvinced.
“Just for me, try.”
I kissed her quickly on the forehead and she disappeared into
the crowd that was heading towards the platform.




6

The pole was glowing a pale crimson when I touched it.
Hello.
I couldn’t contain my rage, “You bastards! Well, we’re not
powerless after all, we’ve got free will, we can change things. We
can ruin your high school project completely, rats that we are!”
Oh. Well, that too is one of the things under study at the moment.
 “Well, let me tell you something. I don’t want your
immortality! Because I’d have to give up being a person. Being a
person means changing all the time, not being indifferent, and
you’re changing us into machines.”
Oh? And do you deny that you’ve changed?
It was true. I had changed. I wasn’t going to be a
Guildenstern for the rest of my life anymore. I was going to fight