"James Patrick Kelly - The Propagation Of Light In A Vacuum" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kelly James Patrick)

wants in bed. Sometimes I worry he takes me for granted. It's not easy for
me, either. I have nightmares, you know. About them. Her, especially. The
real one. There's a beautiful chef's knife in the galley, twenty
centimeters long, high-carbon stainless, forged in Germany. It's his
favorite. Uses it for everything; he probably has it in his hand right
now. In the nightmare I'm holding his knife, prowling the halls. The
handle is blood-hot. When I listen at doors, I hear them breathing. I rub
the flat of the blade across my lips and think of her kissing him. They
all have reasons for being on board. Important things to accomplish. Why
am I here? To chatter, to amuse? Any one of them could tell stories and
still do something worth doing. Sleep with him? She did it and had
responsibility for water distribution and sewage treatment besides. I
think she was cheating on him. I know she took him for granted. It would
have killed him to find out; he was in love. In my dream the knife is long
and hot. I can hear her breathing. My throat feels thick. That's all.)
Are you still here talking? I swear, there's no keeping you quiet. Come on
then, come on. Dinner is on the table!
Funny that the mess should seem so empty now, because before it wasn't big
enough to seat everyone at once. We were supposed to go in shifts. Those
little pasta things are spaetzel. From Switzerland. They're great with
butter, or try them with gravy. And here's salad, produce fresh from the
tanks. And this is the famous meatloaf, my very own culinary masterpiece.
In fact, it's about the only work of art I've created since the ship
warped.
(Except for me.)
Would you like the recipe? It's really good eating.

Faster-Than-Light Meatloaf
500 grams ground meat
2 grams salt
1 gram pepper
1/2 small onion, chopped (about 50 grams)
50 grams powdered ovobinder or 1 egg, beaten
30 grams stale bread, crumbled
1/2 green pepper, chopped (about 50 grams)
200 grams creamed corn
Preheat oven to 190░ Celsius. Mix all ingredients, holding back half the
creamed corn. Form into loaf and bake 50 minutes. Heat extra corn and
pour over finished loaf.
Serves two.

You can substitute whole corn if necessary but then you lose the topping.
Creaming the corn is well worth the extra trouble, in my opinion. You know
how memories attach themselves to certain aromas? I smell creamed corn and
I'm in Grandma's dining room at Thanksgiving and I'm a happy little kid
again. I missed creamed corn in my first marriage; Varina used to say it
looked like vomit. Ground meat is, of course, rather hard to come by on
this side of c. Luckily, there was an ample supply on board.
After dinner we usually go back to the fx and run simulations; sometimes
we put on one of my vids. My imaginary wife enjoys them, or pretends to.