• Пожаловаться

Paul Melko: The Walls of the Universe

Здесь есть возможность читать онлайн «Paul Melko: The Walls of the Universe» весь текст электронной книги совершенно бесплатно (целиком полную версию). В некоторых случаях присутствует краткое содержание. категория: Фантастика и фэнтези / на английском языке. Описание произведения, (предисловие) а так же отзывы посетителей доступны на портале. Библиотека «Либ Кат» — LibCat.ru создана для любителей полистать хорошую книжку и предлагает широкий выбор жанров:

любовные романы фантастика и фэнтези приключения детективы и триллеры эротика документальные научные юмористические анекдоты о бизнесе проза детские сказки о религиии новинки православные старинные про компьютеры программирование на английском домоводство поэзия

Выбрав категорию по душе Вы сможете найти действительно стоящие книги и насладиться погружением в мир воображения, прочувствовать переживания героев или узнать для себя что-то новое, совершить внутреннее открытие. Подробная информация для ознакомления по текущему запросу представлена ниже:

Paul Melko The Walls of the Universe

The Walls of the Universe: краткое содержание, описание и аннотация

Предлагаем к чтению аннотацию, описание, краткое содержание или предисловие (зависит от того, что написал сам автор книги «The Walls of the Universe»). Если вы не нашли необходимую информацию о книге — напишите в комментариях, мы постараемся отыскать её.

John Rayburn thought all of his problems were the mundane ones of an Ohio farm boy in his last year in high school. Then his doppelgänger appeared, tempted him with a device that let him travel across worlds, and stole his life from him. John soon finds himself caroming through universes, unable to return home – the device is broken. John settles in a new universe to unravel its secrets and fix it. Meanwhile, his doppelgänger tries to exploit the commercial technology he's stolen from other Earths: the Rubik's Cube! John's attempts to lie low in his new universe backfire when he inadvertently introduces pinball. It becomes a huge success. Both actions draw the notice of other, more dangerous travelers, who are exploiting worlds for ominous purposes. Fast-paced and exciting, this is SF adventure at its best from a rising star.

Paul Melko: другие книги автора


Кто написал The Walls of the Universe? Узнайте фамилию, как зовут автора книги и список всех его произведений по сериям.

The Walls of the Universe — читать онлайн бесплатно полную книгу (весь текст) целиком

Ниже представлен текст книги, разбитый по страницам. Система сохранения места последней прочитанной страницы, позволяет с удобством читать онлайн бесплатно книгу «The Walls of the Universe», без необходимости каждый раз заново искать на чём Вы остановились. Поставьте закладку, и сможете в любой момент перейти на страницу, на которой закончили чтение.

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

“Well? How close did I come?” He smiled and tossed the apple core into Stan’s stall.

“I never kissed Amy Walder.” Amy had gotten pregnant when she was fifteen by Tyrone Biggens. She’d moved to Montana with her aunt and hadn’t come back. John didn’t mention that everything else he’d said was true.

“Well, was I right?”

John shrugged. “Mostly.”

“Mostly? I nailed it on the head with a hammer, because it all happened to me. Only it happened in another universe.”

How did this guy know so much about him? Who had he talked to? His parents? “Okay. Answer this. What was my first cat’s name?”

“Snowball.”

“What is my favorite class?”

“Physics.”

“What schools did I apply to?”

The man paused, frowned. “I don’t know.”

“Why not? You know everything else.”

“I’ve been traveling, you know, for a while. I haven’t applied to college yet, so I don’t know. As soon as I used the device, I became someone different. Up till then, we were the same.” He looked tired. “Listen. I’m you, but if I can’t convince you, that’s fine. Let me sleep in the loft tonight and then I’ll leave.”

John watched him grab the ladder, and he felt a twinge of guilt at treating him so shabbily. “Yeah, you can sleep in the loft. Let me get you some dinner. Stay here. Don’t leave the barn, and hide if someone comes. You’d give my parents a heart attack.”

“Thanks, John.”

He left him there and sprinted across the yard to the house. His mother and father stopped talking when the door slammed, so he knew they’d been talking about him.

“I’m gonna eat in the barn,” he said. “I’m working on an electronics experiment.”

He took a plate from the cabinet and began to dish out the lasagna. He filled the plate with enough to feed two of him.

His father caught his eye, then said, “Son, this business with the Carson boy…”

John slipped a second fork into his pocket. “Yeah?”

“I’m sure you did the right thing and all.”

John nodded at his father, saw his mother look away. “He hates us because we’re farmers and we dig in the dirt,” John said. His mother lifted her apron strap over her neck, hung the apron on a chair, and slipped out of the kitchen.

“I know that, Johnny… John. But sometimes you gotta keep the peace.”

John nodded. “Sometimes I have to throw a punch, Dad.” He turned to go.

“John, you can eat in here with us.”

“Not tonight, Dad.”

Grabbing a quart of milk, he walked through the laundry room and left out the back door.

He stopped short as he pulled open the barn door. The stranger was rubbing Stan’s ears, and the horse was leaning into him, loving it.

“Stan never lets anyone do that but me.”

The stranger-this other John-turned with a half smile on his lips. “Just so,” he said. He took the proffered paper towel full of lasagna, dug into it with the extra fork John had fetched.

“I always loved this lasagna. Thanks.”

The tone, the arrogance, of the stranger annoyed him. His smile… Did John look like that? He expected the stranger to keep talking, to keep goading him, but instead he remained silent, chewing on his dinner.

Finally John said, “Let’s assume for a moment that you are me from another universe. How can you do it? And why you?”

Through a mouth of pasta, the stranger said, “With my device, and I don’t know.”

“Elaborate,” John said, angry.

“I was given a device that lets me pass from one universe to the next. It’s right here under my shirt. I don’t know why it was me. Or rather, I don’t know why it was us.”

“Stop prancing around my questions!” John shouted. He was impossible! He wouldn’t give a straight answer. “Who gave you the device?”

“I did!” The stranger grinned.

John shook his head, trying to understand. “You’re saying that one of us-yet another John-from another universe gave you the device.”

“Yeah. Another John. Nice-looking fellow.”

Again that smile. John was silent for a while, just watching the stranger wolf down his food. Finally John said, “I need to feed the sheep.” He poured a bag of corn into the trough. The stranger lifted the end of it with him. “Thanks.” They fed the cows and the horse afterwards, then finished their own dinners.

John said, “So if you are me, what do I call you? If we were twins we’d have different names. But really, we’re the same person exactly. Closer than twins.” Twins had identical genetic material but from the moment of conception had slightly differing environments that might turn on and off different genes. Presumably John and this other John had identical genetic material and indentical environments, up to a point.

“My name is John, just like yours. I am you, but you may not like to think of me as John Rayburn. I think of you as John Farm Boy. But you gotta remember there’s an infinite number of us. It’s going to be hard to keep track of all us John Rayburns if we ever get together.” The stranger laughed. “How about you think of me as John Prime for now? We’ll keep track of ourselves relative to our downstream and upstream universes.”

“Who gave you the device?”

“John Superprime,” Prime said with a smile. “So do you believe me yet?”

John was still dubious. It made a bizarre sense, but then so did any of those made-up science fiction stories he’d read at the drugstore. Anything could be believed and made to sound coherent. “Maybe.”

“All right. Here’s the last piece of evidence. No use denying this.” He pulled up his pant leg to reveal a long white scar, devoid of hair. “Let’s see yours,” John said.

John looked at the scar, and then pulled his jeans up to the knee. The cold air of the barn drew goose bumps on his calf everywhere except the puckered flesh of his own identical scar.

When John had been twelve, he and Bobby Walder had climbed the barbed-wire fence of Old Mrs. Jones to swim in her pond. Mrs. Jones had set the dogs on them, and they’d had to run naked across the field, diving over the barbed-wire fence. John hadn’t quite cleared it.

Bobby had run off, and John had limped home. The cut on his leg had required three dozen stitches and a tetanus shot.

“Now do you believe?” Prime asked.

John stared at the scar on his leg. “I believe. Hurt like hell, didn’t it?”

“Yes,” Prime said with a grin. “Yes, it did, brother.”

CHAPTER 2

John sat in the fishbowl-the glass-enclosed room outside the principal’s office-ignoring the eyes of his classmates and wondering what the hell John Prime was up to. He’d left his twin in the barn loft with half his lunch and an admonishment to stay out of sight.

“Don’t worry,” he’d said with a smirk. “Meet me at the library after school.”

“Don’t let anyone see you, all right?”

Prime had smiled again.

“John?” Principal Gushman stuck his head out of his office. John’s stomach dropped; he was never in trouble.

Mr. Gushman had a barrel chest, balding head, and perpetual frown. He motioned John to a chair and sat behind the desk, letting out his breath heavily as he sat. He’d been a major in the army, people said. He was strict. John had never talked with him in the year he’d been principal.

“John, we have a policy regarding violence and bullying.”

John opened his mouth to speak.

“Hold on. Let me finish. The facts of the matter are these. You hit a classmate-a younger classmate-several times in the locker room. He required a trip to the emergency room and stitches.” Gushman opened a file on his desk.

Читать дальше

Шрифт:

Сбросить

Интервал:

Закладка:

Сделать

Похожие книги на «The Walls of the Universe»

Представляем Вашему вниманию похожие книги на «The Walls of the Universe» списком для выбора. Мы отобрали схожую по названию и смыслу литературу в надежде предоставить читателям больше вариантов отыскать новые, интересные, ещё не прочитанные произведения.


John Scalzi: The Sagan Diary
The Sagan Diary
John Scalzi
John Brunner: The Whole Man
The Whole Man
John Brunner
John Ringo: Sister Time
Sister Time
John Ringo
Updike John: Of the Farm
Of the Farm
Updike John
Отзывы о книге «The Walls of the Universe»

Обсуждение, отзывы о книге «The Walls of the Universe» и просто собственные мнения читателей. Оставьте ваши комментарии, напишите, что Вы думаете о произведении, его смысле или главных героях. Укажите что конкретно понравилось, а что нет, и почему Вы так считаете.