"FWLS51" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

A Future We'd Like to See 1.51 - Tales of the Sunny City, Act III
By Stefan "Twoflower" Gagne (Copyright 1994)
(With a special nod to Mike Finn)

Blind spots, to use the vernacular, SUCK. I've got too many
of them and it shows... I can't observe beautiful women
correctly. I can't observe my friends correctly. I can't even
observe myself correctly.

I continued opening the cabinets, looking for the device I
knew was here. It's a standard tool of the planetary engineering
trade, so they HAD to have it in the lab. I had seen them use it
before, changing the cloud patterns...

Before, I thought I was able to observe my friends
perfectly. I mean, look at it, they were practically open books;
we had the artist without a clue, oblivious to his own visions in
the same way fish are oblivious to the water they lived in. We
had the hacker/driver who can't decide which career she really
likes, and treats those who disrespect her harshly. Very common
people with very common problems. They were also dating, and
that's the part I messed up on BIG TIME. I let myself cave to
rumor mill and my own incorrect assumptions. A good psychologist
can cut through the cheese and get to reality.

I found it nestled among a dozen other toys I couldn't
recognize. The label on this box was clear, though; it would do
what I wanted it to do. I took the box under an arm and slipped
through the doorway, careful not to trigger the security beams I
knew were there.

I couldn't tell if my friends hated me now or not. I
haven't been making myself easy to deal with lately, obsessing
over one goddess after another, generally being an ass. That
would be okay, even if it was happening on a more regular basis
than before. The incredible miscalculation which I should be
ashamed of is the relationship between Benton and Jody. I feared
what would happen if I accidentally lost control and tried to
pick up a heavenly body that I knew was claimed... only to find
out no claim was staked. Talk about your mistakes!

I ducked around a few other security beams, patterns of
lasers embedded in my head. I researched well for this gag; it
was to be my redemption to my friends. My statement of "YEAH!
Mitch is back and he's bad! No more rampant skirt-chasing, no
more sniveling little wimp who misjudges people. No more spots
hindering his mind-sight. He's gonna pull the ultimate gag and
get your respect back, and his own." Those blind spots were
going to be whisked away in one fell swoop.