"Howard Waldrop - Flying Saucer Rock & Roll" - читать интересную книгу автора (Waldrop Howard)

He owned twelve books on UFOs now, but the Ruppelt was still his
favorite. Once he'd gotten a book by some guy named Truman or
something, who wrote poetry inspired by the people from Venus. It was a
little sad, too, the things people believed sometimes. So Leroy hadn't read
any more books by people who claimed they'd been inside the flying
saucers or met the Neptunians or such. He read only the ones that gave
histories of the sightings and asked questions, like why was the Air Force
covering up? Those books never told you what was in the UFOs, and that
was good because you could imagine it for yourself.

He wondered if any of the Del Vikings had seen flying saucers when
they were in the Air Force with Zoot's cousin. Probably not, or Zoot would
have told him about it. Leroy always tried to get the rest of the Kool-Tones
interested in UFOs, but they all said they had their own problems, like
girls and cigarette money. They'd go with him to see Invasion of the
Saucermen or Earth Vs. the Flying Saucers at the movies, or watch The
Thing on Slim's mother's TV on the Creature Feature, but that was about
it.

Leroy's favorite flying-saucer sighting was the Mantell case, in which a
P-51 fighter plane, which was called the Mustang, chased a UFO over
Kentucky and then crashed after it went off the Air Force radar. Some say
Captain Mantell died of asphyxiation because he went to 20,000 feet and
didn't have on an oxygen mask, but other books said he saw "something
metallic and of tremendous size" and was going after it. Ruppelt thought
it was a Skyhook balloon, but he couldn't be sure. Others said it was a real
UFO and that Mantell had been shot down with Z-rays.

It had made Leroy's skin crawl when he had first read it.

But his mind went back to the Del Vikings. What had caused them to
break up? What was it really like out there on the road? Was music
getting so bad that good groups couldn't make a living at it anymore?

Leroy turned off the flashlight and put the book away. He put out the
cigarette, lit a cigar, went to the window, and looked up the airshaft. He
leaned way back against the cool window and could barely see one star
overhead. Just one star.

He scratched himself and lay back down on the bed.

For the first time, he was afraid about the contest tomorrow night.

We got to be good, he said to himself. We got to be good.

In the other room, the bed started squeaking again.


The Hellbenders arrived early to check out the turf. They'd been there