Читать книгу Sombrero Fallout - Richard Brautigan - Страница 18

BERRIES

Though it was a hot day, the sombrero was ice-cold. When the cousin touched the hat, he withdrew his hand immediately as if he had touched electricity.

‘What’s wrong?’ said the mayor.

‘This sombrero is cold,’ his cousin said.

‘What?’ the mayor said.

‘It’s cold.’

‘Cold?’

‘Ice-cold.’

The man who did not have a job stared at the sombrero. It didn’t look cold to him. But what did he know? He didn’t have a job. Perhaps if he had a job the sombrero would have looked cold to him. Maybe that’s why he didn’t have a job. He couldn’t see a cold sombrero when he was looking at one.

His unemployment benefits had run out a month before and he was now reduced to eating berries that he found growing in the nearby foothills.

He was very tired of eating berries.

He wanted a hamburger.