"Nancy Kress - Out of all the Bright Stars" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

======================
Out of All Them Bright Stars
by Nancy Kress
======================

Copyright (c)1985 Nancy Kress
First published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, March 1985

Fictionwise Contemporary
Science Fiction
Nebula Award Winner

---------------------------------
NOTICE: This work is copyrighted. It is licensed only for use by the purchaser. If you did not purchase
this ebook directly from Fictionwise.com then you are in violation of copyright law and are subject to
severe fines. Please visit www.fictionwise.com to purchase a legal copy. Fictionwise.com offers a reward
for information leading to the conviction of copyright violators of Fictionwise ebooks.
---------------------------------


So I'm filling the catsup bottles at the end of the night, and I'm listening to the radio Charlie has stuck
up on top of a movable panel in the ceiling, when the door opens and one of them walks in. I know right
away it's one of them -- no chance to make a mistake about that -- even though it's got on a nice suit and
a brim hat like Humphrey Bogart used to wear in Casablanca. But there's nobody with it, no professor
or government men like on the TV show or even any students. It's all alone. And we're a long way out
on the highway from the college.
It stands in the doorway, blinking a little, with rain dripping off its hat. Kathy, who's supposed to be
cleaning the coffee machine behind the counter, freezes and stares with one hand holding the filter up in
the air like she's never going to move again. Just then Charlie calls out from the kitchen, "Hey, Kathy,
you ask anybody who won the Trifecta?" and she doesn't even answer him. Just goes on staring with her
mouth open like she's thinking of screaming but forgot how. And the old couple in the corner booth, the
only ones left from the crowd when the movie got out, stop chewing their chocolate cream pie and stare
too. Kathy closes her mouth and opens it again and a noise comes out like "Uh -- errrgh..."
Well, that got me annoyed. Maybe she tried to say "ugh" and maybe she didn't, but here it is
standing in the doorway with rain falling around it in little drops and we're staring at it like it's a clothes
dummy and not a customer. So I think that's not right and maybe we're even making it feel a little bad, I
wouldn't like Kathy staring at me like that, and I dry my hands on my towel and go over.
"Yes, sir, can I help you?" I say.
"Table for one," it says, like Charlie's is some nice steak house in town. But I suppose that's the
kind of place the government men mostly take them to. And besides, its voice is polite and easy to
understand, with a sort of accent but not as bad as some we get from the college. I can tell what it's
saying. I lead him to a booth in the corner opposite the old couple, who come in every Friday night and
haven't left a tip yet.
He sits down slowly. I notice he keeps his hands on his lap, but I can't tell if that's because he
doesn't know what to do with them or because he thinks I won't want to see them. But I've seen the
close-ups on TV -- they don't look so weird to me like they do to some. Charlie says they make his
stomach turn, but I can't see it. You think he'd of seen worse meat in Vietnam. He talks enough like he
did, on and on, and sometimes we even believe him.
I say, "Coffee, sir?"
He makes a kind of movement with his eyes. I can't tell what the movement means, but he says in