"Robert Sheckley. The Day The Aliens Came (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

Pseudontoics which fits securely into the human left ear.
Still, with help from our expert (the guy in the scarlet blazer) who had
volunteered to assist us, we soon formed up our first composite. And even though
not everything was entirely right, since some organs can fit into very different
types of human holes, it was still a thrill to see ourselves turning into a new
creature with an individuality and self-awareness all of its own.
The high point of my new association with the composite was the annual picnic.
We went to the Hanford ruins where the old atomic energy place used to be. It
was overgrown with weeds, with some of them of very strange shapes and colors
indeed. There were about two hundred of us in this group, and we deferred
joining up until after lunch was served.
The Ladies' Auxiliary gave out the food, and they had a collection point just
beyond, where everyone put in what they could. I dropped in a Synestrian bill
that I had just been paid for the novelette. A lot of people came around to look
at the bill and there was ooing and aahing, because Synestrian bills are really
pretty, though they're so thick you can't fold them and they tend to make an
unsightly bulge in your pocket. One of the men from the Big Red composite
cruised over and looked at my Synestrian bill. He held it up to the light and
watched the shapes and colors chase each other.
"That's mighty pretty." he said. "You ever think of framing it and hanging
it on the wall?"
"I was just about to think about that," I said.
He decided he wanted the bill and asked me how much I wanted for it. I quoted
him a price about three times its value in USA currency. He was delighted with
the price. Holding the bill carefully by one corner, he sniffed it delicately.
"That's pretty good," he said.
Now that I thought about it, I realized the Synestrian money did have a good
smell.
"These are prime bills," I assured him.
He sniffed again. "You ever eat one of these?" he asked me.
I shook my head. The notion had never occurred to me.
He nibbled at a corner. "Delicious!"
Seeing him enjoying himself like that got me thinking. I wanted a taste myself.
But it was his bill now. I had sold it to him. All I had was bland old American
currency.
I searched through my pockets. I was clean out of Synestrian bills. I didn't
even have one left to hang on my wall back home, and I certainly didn't have one
to eat.
And then I noticed Rimb. melding all by herself in a corner, and she looked so
cute doing it that I went over to join her.

--------------3A013EC469E4 Content-Type: text/html; charset=koi8-r;
name="pilgrim.html" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline;
filename="pilgrim.html" Content-Base: "file:///A|/Sheckley/pilgrim.html"
Pilgrimage to Earth
Robert Sheckley
Alfred Simon was born on Kazanga IV, a small agricultural planet near Arcturus,
and there he drove a combine through the wheat fields, and in the long, hushed
evenings listened to the recorded love songs of Earth.
Life was pleasant enough on Kazanga, and the girls were buxom, jolly, frank and