"Monica Hughes - Devil On My Back" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hughes Monica)

another stone. The lights came nearer, very close to the ground. They stopped. He could smell its bitter,
wild animal scent. His hands shook as he slipped the stone into the sling. I don't want to kill it, whatever it
is. I wish I didn't have to...
At the instant of his thought the fire finally caught and a great gout of flame licked up, mapping a
circle of reality on the thick darkness. Within this circle Tomi could see his shadow, black against the
harsh pale grass, the arm raised menacingly. In the tangle of brush at the limit of light he caught a glimpse
of spotted fur, of sharp ears tufted with hair. Then there was nothing but tangled brush. The flames
shrank. Reality shrank, until there was nothing at all but the patch of grass he was kneeling on. Then that
too vanished and there was nothing at all.
***
"I hope you had a good dream, Young Lord." He opened his eyes and stared blankly at the young
worker. She unplugged his connection to the couch and turned to Denn. Tomi sat up and swung his feet
to the ground. His body felt uncomfortably fat and unwieldy and the paks dragged painfully at the nape of
his neck. Funny, in the dream he had felt so supple and free...
"Wow!"
"Wow indeed. How do you feel?"
"Fantastic! As if I had just climbed the highest mountain or... or..."
"Discovered a new world?"
"Yes. Yes! Denn, weren't our bodies amazing? We could do anything."
The two boys shuffled out of Dreamland. The main corridor was full of students strolling towards
the dining room.
"Suppertime already? That was a long dream."
"Well, it did last a day and a night. I'm starved."
"Me, too. That fish you caught was a long time ago."
Denn stopped to stare, "What do you mean: I caught? When I came downriver in the dugout you
were there, cooking the fish as calm as you please."
"Huh? It was I who came downriver, Denn, and found you by the fire."
"How strange. All right then: which one of us do you say killed the wild beast?"
"I did, of course. You nearly let the fire out, you silly goat. That was a close squeak!"
Denn shook his head. "In my dream you dozed off and I saved us with that weapon."
They glared at each other, not noticing the bumps and complaints of the other lordlings trying to
get into the dining hall. Then Denn broke the tension with a laugh.
"Now I see! The worker asked us if we wanted the same dream. That's just what we gotтАФwith
each of us the hero."
"Of course. Sorry, Denn. For an instant then I actually wanted to hit you."
Denn threw his arm over Tomi's shoulder. "So did I. That's what comes of dreaming about the
savage world out there. Lets forget it. That fish tasted wonderful, but my stomach tells me it needs real
food. Come on."
"It's a pity though," said Tomi thoughtfully as they picked up their trays.
"What is?"
"I was going to ask you how under the Dome you could start a fire by rubbing two sticks
together."
"Sorry, I can't help. I was wondering that too."
As Tomi stripped off his robe that night he found himself looking at his naked body in the mirror.
Pale and fat, under-muscled, his shoulders already learning the stoop necessary to support the weight of
his paks; it was not a beautiful body. He sighed, remembering that other Tomi, muscled and brown. Free.
He tried to stand upright and pull his stomach in, but it was really too uncomfortable. He quickly let his
body slump back to its ordinary posture. After all, the other had been but a dream.
It was only in the last few seconds before the sleep signal was activated in his brain that he
remembered poor Grog and Farfat.