"Simon R. Green - Nightside 1 - Drinking Midnight Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

the platform like one of George Romero's zombies, all dull-eyed and listless. Most mornings he had
to be nudged awake to get on the train when it arrived, sometimes on time, and sometimes not. It
all depended on how the train company felt about it. And if you didn't like it, you were of course
free to take your custom to some other train company. Except that there wasn't another train
company.
By the time the train lurched into Bath, the city was already wide awake and bustling with eager,
impatient people hurrying to their jobs, positively radiating motivation and can-do. Toby tried
not to look at them. He found them depressing beyond words. The streets were crowded, and the
roads were packed bumper to bumper with snarling, cursing commuter traffic. At this time of the
day, the air was so thick with pollution that even the pigeons were coughing, and the noise level
was appalling. Head down, shoulders hunched, Toby trudged through the din, wearing his best get-
out-of-my-way-or-I'll-kill-you look.
Toby didn't care for cities. They had far too much personality, like a bully forever punching you
on the arm to get your attention. Toby had spent three years living in the East End of London,
back when he was a student; an area that would have profited greatly from a heavily armed UN
peacekeeping force. Lacking the funds necessary to reach the more civilised areas of London, Toby
endured three very long years to get his BA (English Literature and Philosophy, Joint Honours) and
then ran back to his home town at the first opportunity. Cities crammed too many people together
in too confined a space, and then the powers that be wondered why people fought each other all the
time. Toby thought cities were like natural disasters; enjoyable only if viewed from a safe
distance. Bath, for example, had interesting places to look at like a dog has fleas, but for the
most part Toby couldn't be bothered to fight his way through the crowds to get to them.
Toby had worked in Bath for over a year, but had never once considered moving there to live.
By the time he got to Gandalf's, ready for the great unlocking at nine a.m., Toby was usually
awake enough to know where he was, but not nearly together enough to interact with customers, so
the other staff usually provided him with useful, mindless activities to occupy him until he was
fully conscious. 'Carry these boxes down into the cellar. Carry these boxes up from the cellar.
Plug in this hoover and follow it around for a while.'
Toby quite liked working in the bookshop. Stacking shelves appealed to his sense of order, and he
liked dealing with customers, even the ones who came in ten minutes before closing time looking
for a book, but couldn't remember the title or the author's name, though they were almost sure
they could describe the cover... But at the end of each and every day he was still just a shop
assistant; another faceless drone in the great hive of the city, doing the same things over and
over, achieving nothing, creating nothing. Every day was just like every other day, and always
would be, world without end, amen, amen.
Toby had just turned thirty-three, and he resented it deeply. He didn't feel old, far from it; but
his youth, supposedly the most promising part of his life, was now officially over. When he was
younger, he'd always thought he'd have his life sorted out by the time he was thirty, that all the
important decisions would be made by then. He'd have a chosen career, a wife and kids and a
mortgage, just like everyone else. He'd have worked out who he was, and what he wanted out of
life. But thirty came round as just another year, just another birthday, and brought no special
wisdom with it. He'd had jobs, but none of them meant anything; and girlfriends, but none of them
came to anything. He had ambition, but no focus; dreams, but no vocation. He drifted through his
days, and years, and didn't realise how much time had passed until he looked back and wondered
where it had all gone.


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