"Steven Gould - Rory" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gould Stephen Jay)

magic? And how come there are so many of them? I thought only one
person in thousands got to be king."
"Just what exactly did Dr. Peterson say?" Dr. Stan Peterson was a
physiologist who lived in C-Twelve. Anton had talked to him only a few
times.
Rory frowned, his eyes shut. "He said that it was really incredible to see
the millions of mon, uh . . . monarchs flying along the coast.''
Anton smiled. "A monarch isn't always a queen or a king, Rory. Among
other things, it's a type of butterfly."
Rory considered that. "Ohhh. A butterfly is a flying bug, isn't it?"
" Close enough, Rory. Close enough."
Once Anton asked Rory how he came to be at the station.
"I was born here."
"Oh? How old are you?"
After a moment, Rory said with great precision, "Twenty-three. I have a
birthday next month. I'll be . . . twenty-four! Dr. Stan once said I had the
mind of a five-year-old, though. What did he mean by that?"
"I don't know, Rory." Anton was beginning to dislike Dr. Stan Peterson,
and he'd only talked to the man twice. "Perhaps he meant that you have a
fresh view on things." He changed the subject. "Where are your parents
now?"
"My mother's on Earth. She sends me presents and messages. My
father's dead. He died when I was real littleтАФI didn't know him." He tilted
his head to one side and looked at Anton. "Dr. Ruth is my guardian."
Anton stared at Rory, surprised. "She is, is she? That's very interesting."
He stared off into space.
Rory waited a minute, then said, "You really like her, don't you?"
Anton nodded solemnly.
Rory scowled. "Darn. It would be nice if she liked you. You're my best
friend after Geary." He batted at the carpeted wall of the lounge.
"Sometimes I don't understand her at all. She was acting like she liked
you. Smiling right after you'd leave the room and looking at nothing. You
know, the sort of look you get on your face when you bang your head real
hard on the doorway? I was sure she liked you!"
"You certainly couldn't prove it by me."
"Well, I thought she did. Then she said something rotten 'bout you."
"What did she say, Rory?" Anton wasn't sure he should ask, but couldn't
help himself. What was another small pain?
"She was talking to Kim, what they call 'girl talk,' so they chased me out
of Dr. Ruth's room, but they didn't close the door so I stuck myself to the
floor and listened." Kim Cowlander was an electronics technician who
roomed in Three-C. She was friendly, but brisk, except with Rory. With
him she was patient and kind.
"Well, what did you hear?" Anton's stomach didn't feel very good.
"Dr. Ruth said you didn't do anything. No, that's not it. She said you
were a lump. Or was it a large piece? No, no. She said you were a hunk! I
didn't think that was very nice. You do lots of things! Why are you
laughing?"
Anton had been speaking English since he was in grade school and had
done his post doctoral work at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore. He had a