"Michael Kandel - Hooking Up" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kandel Michael)

hooked up, you can be on the net inside your head, wherever you go. Oh, said
Topaz, understanding, that's why Cherry doesn't need a modem. And that's why the
children can tell time without a watch. Yes, said Topaz's mother, and lots of
other things you'll learn about as you get older. Most people on Earth are
hooked up now. I think it's about eighty-five percent. Maybe ninety percent.

How do they do it? asked Topaz. Well, they put a little thing in your brain,
said her mother. It's called a plon. It's so little, you can hardly see it, and
it does all the attaching in there by itself, with your neurons, in about two
hours. It's a very clever thing. It doesn't matter what kind of brain you have,
either, because people's brains are different, you know. I read how a man in
Pakistan had reversed lobes, and the plon didn't have any problem with that.

I don't think I'd like something inside my brain, said Topaz. She once read a
horror story about a spider that got inside a person's brain and took over and
made him do terrible things like murder his sweetheart. The story gave her the
creeps whenever she thought about it. That was the last horror story she read.
It's really no more than getting a vaccination, her mother said. We're scheduled
to have you hooked up, and your father too, next week, Monday, right after
school. We'll go out for ice cream and melon afterward. Topaz said with a sigh,
I guess I have to do it, if all the other children are hooked up. Her mother
patted her knee and smiled. You're such a big girl, she said. I'm very pleased
with you.

But the Saturday before their appointment to be hooked up, Topaz got the flu.
Her nose ran, she coughed, and she was achy all over. This was to be expected,
said her father. The bugs on Earth are different, and you haven't been exposed
to all of them, even with the shots you had before we came. Take it easy and
drink a lot of liquids. He tucked her in her bed and kissed her forehead. His
lips were cool and he smelled good. I'll have to get hooked up without you, he
said. You won't be there to hold my hand, poor me, he joked.

Cherry and Anemone came to visit. Topaz's mother made them all Nerolian
milkshakes, which is kava syrup and licorice jimmies added to the ice cream. The
Earth girls loved it. I never had anything like this, Ms. P., said Cherry.
Topaz's mother gave her more. They played dolls on Topaz's bed. Anemone had
brought three antique Austrian dolls. They're beautiful, said Topaz, afraid to
touch them. They're expensive, said Anemone. You wouldn't believe how much. The
three girls played carefully with them, making up a wonderful story about
princesses.

Topaz had to stay home for three days. She slept a lot and watched Earth
compuvision, which delighted and alarmed her at the same time. There were an
endless number of shows, and the neatest games imaginable, and if the focus
wasn't always as good as the screen she had had on Nerol, the colors were much
better. But some of the shows and games were strange and one or two seemed evil.
They reminded her of Romero back home, who was finally taken out of school on
the psychologist's orders and put in an institution.

After Topaz returned to school at the Franklin Child Center, her mother made