"C. S. Friedman - Downtime" - читать интересную книгу автора (Friedman C. S)

sign for it, please." The pad was given to her. Marian hesitated, then pressed her thumb ont
surface. The thing hummed for a moment, no doubt comparing her print to government reco
Confirmed, it blinked at last. The woman took it back from her, cleared her throat, and
assumed a more formal position that she clearly associated with official announcements.
"Ms. Stiller, I have delivered to you an Order of Filial Obligation. You are require
read the contents and respond to them in a timely manner. If you do not, you may be subje
fines and/or imprisonment. Do you understand?"
She barely whispered it. "Yes, I understand."
"Do you have any questions?"
"Not. . . not in front of the children." She was suddenly aware of them not far away,
heard for the first time how their chatter had quieted suddenly. They had to be protected
this. That was her first job. Questions . . . the Department had places for questions t
answered. Later.
"I understand." The woman bowed her head a token inch. There was no sign of emotio
her expression or in her carriage. What did it feel like, to spend your day delivering mess
like this? "Good day, then." Or was she one of the people who believed in the Filial Obliga
Act, who thought it was a good thing? Marian didn't ask. She didn't want to know.
She watched her walk away from the house because that was one more thing to do be
opening the letter. When the woman rounded a corner and that excuse was gone, she tu
with a sigh and shut the door behind her. The envelope was heavy in her hand. The r
seemed unnaturally quiet.
"What? What is it?" She met the eyes of child after child, all gazing up at her with the s
worried intensity as the dog in its corner. Children, like animals, could sometimes s
trouble. She looked at the letter in her hand and forced herself to adopt mat teasing tone
used when they worried over nothing. "It's just mail. You've never seen paper mail befo
swear."
She shook her head with mock amazement and curled up on fhe couch again. She cou
read it here, not in front of them, and she certainly couldn't go off to a private room now
they were watching her. She threw the letter onto the far end of the coffee table, facedow
that they wouldn't see the DFO insignia ne xt to the address. It landed on top of a pil
drawings, cover- lrt g over the lower part of a horse. Amy fussed at her until she moved it
that time everyone else was back on the couch, and she found some cartoons on the child
net and turned up the volume and hoped it would distract them. Best to just pretend the l
wasn't really important, until they forgot all about it. Then she could go off to the bathr
alone with it or something, or say she had to start cooking dinner, or . . . something.
She wondered if they could hear how hard her heart was beating.
 To Ms. Marian S. Stiller, child of Rosalinde Stiller:
This Order of Filial Obligation is to inform you that your family status has
reviewed, and it has been determined the debt formerly assigned to Cassandra Stiller is
the rightful debt in whole of Marian S. Stiller, only surviving child of Rosalinde Stiller.
Enclosed you will find an Appraisal of filial Debt and Order of Obligation from
offices. Please review both these documents carefully. You are expected to comply with
Order by the date indicated. Any questions you have should be addressed to our of
within that time. Failure to comply with this Order promptly and with full cooperation
result in substantial fines and/or imprisonment.

Ohe was helping Amy with a jigsaw puzzle when Steve came home, teaching her ho
analyze the shapes with her eyes so that she didn't have to try as many wrong pieces before
found the right ones. The boys had tried to help, but they didn't have the attention span to
up with it, and they had gone off to play with the dog.