"Robert A. Heinlein - Farmer In The Sky" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

Presently I heard Dad trying the latch. Then he tapped on the door and said, тАЬBill?тАЭ

I didn't answer. After a while he went away. I lay there a while longer. I guess I bawled, but I wasn't
bawling over the trouble with Dad. It seemed the way it did the day Anne died, when I couldn't get it
through my head that I wouldn't ever see her again. Wouldn't ever see her smile at me again and hear her
say, тАЬStand tall, Billy.тАЭ

And I would stand tall and she would look proud and pat my arm.

How could George do it? How could he bring some other woman into Anne's home?

I got up and had a look at myself in the mirror and then went in and set my 'fresher for a needle shower
and a hard massage. I felt better afterwards, except that I still had a sick feeling in my stomach. The
'fresher blew me off and dusted me and sighed to a stop. Through the sound it seemed to me I could hear
Anne speaking to me, but that must have been in my head.

She was saying, тАЬStand tall, Son.тАЭ I got dressed again and went out.

Dad was messing around with dinner and I do mean messing. He had burned his thumb on the
shortwave, don't ask me how. I had to throw out what he had been fiddling with, all except the salad. I
picked out more stuff and started them cycling. Neither of us said anything.

I set the table for three and Dad finally spoke. тАЬBetter set it for four, Bill. Molly has a daughter, you
know.тАЭ

I dropped a fork. тАЬMolly? You mean Mrs. Kenyon?тАЭ

тАЬYes. Didn't I tell you? No, you didn't give me a chance to.тАЭ

I knew her all right. She was Dad's draftsman. I knew her daughter, tooтАФa twelve-year-old brat.
Somehow, it being Mrs. Kenyon made it worse, indecent. Why, she had even come to Anne's Farewell
and had had the nerve to cry.

I knew now why she had always been so chummy with me whenever I was down at Dad's office. She
had had her eye on George.

I didn't say anything. What was there to say?

I said тАЬHow do you do?тАЭ politely when they came in, then went out and pretended to fiddle with dinner.
Dinner was sort of odd. Dad and Mrs. Kenyon talked and I answered when spoken to. I didn't listen. I
was still trying to figure out how he could do it. The brat spoke to me a couple of times but I soon put her
in her place.

After dinner Dad said how about all of us going to a show? I begged off, saying that I still had sorting to
do. They went.

I thought and thought about it. Any way I looked at it, it seemed like a bad deal.

At first I decided that I wouldn't go to Ganymede after all, not if they were going. Dad would forfeit my
bond, but I would work hard and pay it backтАФI wasn't going to owethem anything!