One Billion Years to the End of the World (Penguin Science Fiction) by Arkady Strugatsky & Boris Strugatsky

Author:Arkady Strugatsky & Boris Strugatsky [Strugatsky, Arkady & Strugatsky, Boris]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780141994482
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Published: 2020-08-05T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 7

Excerpt 14 … Zakhar’s son, comfortably ensconced on the corner of the bed, graced the proceedings with occasional readings from the Popular Medical Encyclopedia, given to him by Malianov to keep him quiet. Vecherovsky, strikingly elegant in contrast to the sweaty, disheveled Weingarten, listened and looked at the strange boy curi-ously, raising his red eyebrows high. He had not yet said anything substantial – he had asked a few questions that had, to Malianov (and not to Malianov alone), seemed irrelevant. For instance, for no reason at all, he asked Zakhar if he was often in conflict with his supervisors and Glukhov if he liked to watch television. (It turned out that Zakhar never had conflicts with anybody, that was his personality, and Glukhov did like to watch television, not only liked it, but couldn’t resist it.)

Malianov really liked Glukhov. In general, Malianov didn’t like seeing new people in old company; he was always afraid they would misbehave somehow and he would be embarrassed for them. But Glukhov turned out to be okay. He was extremely cozy and unthreatening – a little scrawny, snub-nosed fellow with reddish eyes hidden by strong glasses. When he arrived he happily drank the glass of vodka Weingarten offered him and was visibly saddened when he learned it was the last one in the house.

When he was subjected to cross-examination, he listened to each one attentively, leaning his head professorially to the right and looking to the right as well. ‘No, no,’ he replied apologetically. ‘No, nothing like that happened to me. Please, I can’t even imagine anything like that. My thesis? I’m afraid it’s too foreign for you: “The Cultural Influence of the USA on Japan: An Attempt at a Qualita-tive and Quantitative Analysis”. Yes, my headaches seem to be some idiosyncrasy: I’ve discussed it with major doctors – a rare case, they said.’

In general, they laid an egg with Glukhov, but it didn’t matter, it was nice that he was there. He was a real down-to-earth guy. He drank heartily and wanted more, ate caviar with childlike glee, preferred Ceylon tea, and his favorite reading matter was mysteries. He watched the strange child with reserved apprehension, laughing uncertainly from time to time, listened to the delirious tales with uncommon sympathy, and scratched behind both ears, muttering, ‘Yes, that’s amazing, unbelievable!’ In a word, everything about Glukhov was clear to Malianov. There would be no new information and certainly no advice coming from him.

Weingarten, as usual when Vecherovsky was around, lowered his profile. He even looked more presentable and stopped shouting and calling people ‘buddy’. However, he did eat the last grains of the black caviar.

If you didn’t count the brief replies to Vecherovsky’s questions, Zakhar said nothing. He didn’t even get to tell his own story – Weingarten took that upon himself. And he stopped admonishing his son and just smiled painfully as he listened to the helpful quotations about the diseases of various delicate organs.

And so they sat in silence. Sipping cold tea.

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