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The Lovers :: Фармер Филип Хосе
Страница: 42 из 127He said, whining, 'But – but, you were driving the car!'
'Makes no difference according to what you have always told me!' said Hal. He was grinning smugly. 'You agreed to be in the collision. If you had not, we would have missed the beast.'
Pornsen stopped to puff on the cigarette. His hand shook. Yarrow watched the hand that hung free by Pornsen's side, its fingers twisting the seven leather lashes of the whip handle stuck in his belt.
Pornsen said, 'You have always shown signs of a regrettable pride and independence. That smacks of behavior that does not conform to the structure of the universe as revealed to mankind by the Forerunner, real be his name.
'I have [puff] – may the Forerunner forgive them! – sent two dozen men and women to H. I did not like to do that, for I loved them with all my heart and self. I wept when I reported them to the holy hierarchy, for I am a tender – hearted man. [Puff!] But it was my duty as a Guardian Angel Pro Tempore to watch out for the loathsome disease of self that may spread and infect the followers of Sigmen. Unreality must not be tolerated. The self is too weak and precious to be subjected to temptation.
'I have been your gapt since you were born. [Puff!] You always were a disobedient child. But you could be loved into submissiveness and contrition; you felt my love often. [Puff!]'
Yarrow felt his back tingle. He watched the gapt's hand tighten around the handle of the 'lover' projecting from the belt.
'However, not until you were eighteen did you really depart from the true future and show your weakness for pseudofutures. That was when you decided to become a joat instead of a specialist. I warned you that as a joat you'd get only so far in our society. But you persisted. And since we do have need of joats, and since I was overruled by my superiors, I allowed you to become one.
'That was [puff] unshib enough. But when I picked out the woman most suitable to be your wife – as was my duty and right – for who but your loving gapt knows the type of woman best suited for you? – I saw just how proud and unreal you were. You argued and protested and tried to go over my head and held out for a year before you consented to marry her. In that year of unreal behavior, you cost the Sturch one self...'
Hal's face paled, revealing seven thin red marks that raved out from the left corner of his lips and across his cheek to his ear.
'I cost the Sturch nothing!' Hal growled. 'Mary and I were married nine years, but we had no children. Tests showed that neither of us was physically sterile.
'Makes no difference according to what you have always told me!' said Hal. He was grinning smugly. 'You agreed to be in the collision. If you had not, we would have missed the beast.'
Pornsen stopped to puff on the cigarette. His hand shook. Yarrow watched the hand that hung free by Pornsen's side, its fingers twisting the seven leather lashes of the whip handle stuck in his belt.
Pornsen said, 'You have always shown signs of a regrettable pride and independence. That smacks of behavior that does not conform to the structure of the universe as revealed to mankind by the Forerunner, real be his name.
'I have [puff] – may the Forerunner forgive them! – sent two dozen men and women to H. I did not like to do that, for I loved them with all my heart and self. I wept when I reported them to the holy hierarchy, for I am a tender – hearted man. [Puff!] But it was my duty as a Guardian Angel Pro Tempore to watch out for the loathsome disease of self that may spread and infect the followers of Sigmen. Unreality must not be tolerated. The self is too weak and precious to be subjected to temptation.
'I have been your gapt since you were born. [Puff!] You always were a disobedient child. But you could be loved into submissiveness and contrition; you felt my love often. [Puff!]'
Yarrow felt his back tingle. He watched the gapt's hand tighten around the handle of the 'lover' projecting from the belt.
'However, not until you were eighteen did you really depart from the true future and show your weakness for pseudofutures. That was when you decided to become a joat instead of a specialist. I warned you that as a joat you'd get only so far in our society. But you persisted. And since we do have need of joats, and since I was overruled by my superiors, I allowed you to become one.
'That was [puff] unshib enough. But when I picked out the woman most suitable to be your wife – as was my duty and right – for who but your loving gapt knows the type of woman best suited for you? – I saw just how proud and unreal you were. You argued and protested and tried to go over my head and held out for a year before you consented to marry her. In that year of unreal behavior, you cost the Sturch one self...'
Hal's face paled, revealing seven thin red marks that raved out from the left corner of his lips and across his cheek to his ear.
'I cost the Sturch nothing!' Hal growled. 'Mary and I were married nine years, but we had no children. Tests showed that neither of us was physically sterile.