"Robert F. Young - Ghosts" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

WHEN Professor Tom died he left Jenny and Jim the house he had lived in, the old movies he had
loved to watch and the workshop where he had tinkered away the final years of his life.
Jenny and Jim buried him high on the valley slope where the woodbine ran wild each spring and the
first wildflowers appeared—where the warm rays of Arcturus struck each springtime morning, heralding
the new day. Jim said a few words over the grave and Jenny stood beside him, trying to cry. She
couldn't. She had no tears.
"We give to you this man, God," Jim said, "to do with as you must. We give him to you because you
are his god. He was ours."
Together they shoveled earth over the crude wooden casket and afterward Jenny placed a handful of
spring flowers on the grave. Then she and Jim walked down the slope of the valley and across the fields
to where the white prefabricated house stood, the aluminum workshop just behind it.
"Shall we watch a movie tonight?" Jenny asked. "Or do you think it would be disrespectful?"
"I don't think it would be disrespectful," Jim answered. "I don't think Professor Tom would mind."
The movie they decided upon was Made for Each Other, starring Carole Lombard and James
Stewart. They waited till after the sun went down. Then Jim put the film in the projector, turned out the
lights. They sat down on the sofa to watch. They had watched the movie many times with Professor Tom
and had hugged and kissed like the actors did, but never when he was looking. They had felt he might
disapprove. But it was all right now, not because he was gone, but because they were man and wife. So
they sat there on the sofa with their arms around each other, and every time Carole Lombard kissed
James Stewart Jenny kissed Jim. And whenever James Stewart kissed Carole Lombard Jim kissed
Jenny. Afterward they went outside to sit on the steps and scan the skies. But although they scanned
them all night, they saw nothing but stars.
At length morning arrived. Lovely Arcturus rose above the green lip of the valley and songbirds
climbed air currents into the sky to drink the nectar of the new day.
Jenny said to Jim, "Maybe we're being in much too much of a hurry—maybe it takes time."
Jim answered, "Maybe it'll come tonight."

JIM had been Professor Tom's gardener and handyman, Jenny his cook and housekeeper. On
Earth, before his retirement, Professor Tom had been an engineer in the mechanized-menial field and
Jenny and Jim were almost as beautiful as the stars in the old movies. He had loved them both, but it had
been Jenny he had loved the most and sometimes tears he did not understand had come into his eyes
when he looked at her. He had said on his deathbed, "I never figured on things coming to this so soon. I
preached humility all my life, but all the while I was just as arrogant as everybody else. I never thought
that death would really step on my heels. But you two will be all right. The supply ship will be here within
a year and I've left a note to the captain to take good care of you. He's an old friend of mine."
"Will you marry us?" Jenny has asked and Professor Tom had looked at her and blinked.
"You said," Jim pointed out, "that once you were a justice of the peace. That gives you the authority
to make us man and wife."
"That was long ago," said Professor Tom, "but yes, I suppose it does. However—"
"Surely," Jenny had interposed, "you wouldn't want us to live in sin. We're madly in love and there's
no telling how we'll carry on without you here to chaperone us."
A tear zigzagged down Professor Tom's sere cheek as he said, "Poor child, what do you know about
making love—and what good would the knowledge do you if you had it? But if it will make you
happy—"
There was no bible in the house, but the professor had made do without it. He had spoken the
beautiful words they had heard so often in the old moves. "In sickness and in health . . . Love, honor and
obey . . . I now pronounce you man and wife."
 LIFE went on much as it had before. Jim worked in Professor Tom's flower garden in daytime,
keeping it free from weeds. There was a kitchen garden, too, and Jim cultivated it as faithfully as he had
before, although it would serve no useful purpose now. He and Jenny had already thrown out the food