"Goonan, Kathleen Ann - The String" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goonan Kathleen Ann)

own lives against those who made a profit from them being powerless. He
remembered the beauty of the country from a trek he'd made in his student days,
and the one healthy village he'd seen among all the poor ones. If only all of
them could prosper. He carried that image with him into dreams as he put his
head down, just to rest for a minute, and fell asleep at the table.
The next morning, while eating breakfast, he leafed through the paper to the
international section. There it was. Three scant inches devoted to the uprising.
Jessica rushed into the kitchen. "Hey," she said, "Give me that paper!" She
opened the cupboard and grabbed a bowl, slammed it onto the table. "I forgot, I
need some current events for this morning." She sloshed milk onto her cereal.
"Sit down," said Dan."
"I can't. I'll miss the bus."
"I'll drive you. Here. What about this revolution in Nepal."
She sidled next to him and glanced at it. "Perfect," she said. "Not too long."
"No," Dan said. "It's definitely not too long." It said nothing about the great
privation he knew existed, nothing about the squalor, the lack of medicine,
adequate food. It said nothing about the fact that only 10% of Nepalese men
could read, and only 2% of the women. It did not say that the average life
expectancy was thirty-six years.
Jessica read it in the car while he drove her to school.
#

Three days later, Jessica was back at the international page. "Now Miss Cranshaw
wants a follow-up," she said. "Some of the kids asked her what would happen if
they couldn't find anything and she said they'd better. Look Dad--this sure is
lucky."
TREATY GRANTS SOVEREIGNTY TO NEW NEPALESE GOVERNMENT.
"It says that India and China have both recognized a new elected government in
Nepal," Jessica said. "That's good, isn't it?"
"Yes," said Dan, slowly. "That's very good."
Jessica looked up at him then, and looked at him a long time. "Your voice sounds
funny," she said. "Do you have a cold?" Dan followed her glance and saw that his
right hand had clenched into a fist, with the string crushed inside. The
knuckles were white. "Careful, Dad," she said. "You'll mess up your string."
Dan carefully kept his mind blank that night as he worked the string. There is
no connection, he thought. No connection.
He turned at a sound, and saw Jessica in her white nightgown standing in the
kitchen door. Her eyes were dark and intense, he saw that she was fully awake.
"You really stay up late, don't you?" she asked. "Do you think you'll ever
untangle that string?"
Dan rose and picked her up. She was big, growing so quickly now, and he
remembered when she had been a baby and hugged her close, quickly. I hope not,
was his first, reflexive thought.
"I don't see why not," he said.
She was almost asleep again by the time he tucked her back into bed. Then he
went to bed himself, leaving the string on the table for once. #

Anita came home from work in a bad mood, just as she had for two weeks. "Damn
it," she said, as she flung her leather diskette holder onto the kitchen table,
"they've had plenty of time to look over that museum proposal. Mine is the best