"Donald Westlake - SH4 - The World's A Stage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Westlake Donald E)

“What, jealous Oberon!” the woman was bellowing. “Fairies, skip hence: I have foresworn his bed and
company.”

“I will not talk to things!”

“Tell that nitwit,” Ensign Benson said over his shoulder, “to stop talking into the microphone.”

Below, half the thingummies were skipping away, while the womanoid frowned up at Ensign Benson.
“Fairies, skip hence,” she repeated, even more loudly. “That’s you, buster!”

Ensign Benson called, “Where are the human beings around here?”

“Nowhere in A Midsummer Night’s Dream,” jealous Oberon told him, apparently exasperated.

“I will not talk to things!”

“All right,” disgusted Oberon said, “let’s go, troupe.” As his whatsits and flumadiddles obediently
slopped off, he turned back to call, “And I suppose that spaceship of yours is an example of kitchen sink
realism!”

The entire crowd shuffled away. They appeared to be removing wings and heads and appendages as
they went, almost as though they were costumes; and 40 feet from the ship, they stepped around a
curtain of air, one after the other, and disappeared.

Ensign Benson blinked. “Oh, boy,” he said.

The captain and Billy came out onto the platform, the captain saying,” Where did everybody go?”

“Um,” said Ensign Benson.

“Those were really keen creatures,” Billy said.

“And what a beautiful day, the captain said, gazing skyward, stepping back from the ship, the better to
view the empyrean. “Is it morning here or after---Aak!”

“Another aak,” Ensign Benson moodily said, watching the captain tumble down the stairs to land in a
dusty heap at the bottom.

“Kybee, look!” said Billy.

Ensign Benson followed Billy’s pointing finger. There in the middle of the field, an invisible curtain of air
was lifting to reveal what seemed to be a house with its side wall torn away. In the kitchen, a woman
wearing a slip stood wearily at her ironing board. In the living room, a man in a torn T-shirt sprawled on a
sofa and drank beer.

Captain Standforth had picked himself up and was brushing himself off. Ensign Benson started down the
ladder, intent on finding out what was going on here, and Billy came after. Above, Pam Stokes and
Hester Hanshaw came tentatively out to the platform, Pam looking at the oddly sliced house and saying,
“Did they miss a mortgage payment?”