"Kelley Eskridge - Alien Jane" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eskridge Kelly)

staircase that I had to climb, and every time I got to the top I would be back at the bottom again: like big
wheels in my head turn-

Alien Jane тАв 8t

ing all night, so I was more tired than if they had just let me cry for a while.

"Thank you for seeing Dr. Novak," Rousseau said to fane. "Do you have any questions about the hnd of
testittg he wants to do? I hrow he might not have explained things completely, he's so excited about your
condition..."

jane was quiet.

"Please understand how important this is," Rousseau went on. "No one here has had the opportunity to
examine congenital insensitivity to pain. It's very rare, and there are so many things we want to know...."

"I'm not a lab animal."

"No, you're not. No one will treat you that way. You're a person with an unusual condition, and with
your help we can learn the best ways to deal with other people who have it. We may be able to help you
find ways to live with it. I promise no one will hurt you ... I mean ..."
"I know what you mean, Doctor." |ane sounded a hundred years old, tired and thin-voiced.

"You don't have to do this if you don't want to. No one will make Iou," Tommy said gently.

"Will you excuse us for a moment, Jane?" Rousseau said. I felt her and Tommy move past me toward the
window, their footsteps sending small shudders through the bed and the bones of my skull.

Rousseau kept her voice low. "Tommy, I expect you to back me up on this."

"I just don't think we should push her. She's only just started to connect with us. It's a little soon to ask
her to include someone else in that trust."

"Dr. Novak is one of our best research neurologists. I think we should be supporting jane's opportunity
to work with him."

There *"i a silence that seemed long.

"I don't understand why you're doing this. I hrow you don't support his research funding, you even wrote
a letter about it to the Chief of Neurolog', last year."

"How did you know about that?"

"Everybody knows."

Rousseau's voice suddenly sounded very close, sha1p.
8z . Nebula Awards 3r

"Great. Then maybe everyone should know that I have since retracted that letter and encouraged several
of my patients to participate in Dr. Novak's studies. Including Jane, if she's willing."