"Nancy Kress - The Sleepless - Sleeping Dogs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

Donna cries, "Aren't they beautiful!"
"They look like slimy rats," I say. She gives me a look. Leisha whimpers and shifts on the spoiled blanket.
Donna says, "Wait till Precious sees them!"
"Now, princess, we can't let Precious get too attached to these pups," Daddy says. "These here aren't our pets." He looks at
and me, head tipped to one side like he's making a critical judgment. But his eyes are shining.
"These here are our fortune."

We don't have a terminal. We did, once, but Daddy sold it after Mama died. He did a lot of things then that didn't make too
sense. His grief ran hard but not too long. Then he got interested in life again. I wouldn't want him any differentтАФat
most of the time.
The library at Kellsville has a public terminal. Once a month a good friend of Daddy's, Denny Patterson, takes one of us girls
the mountain to town to shop. Only two people can fit in the cab of Denny's truck. This month it's my turn.
PROPERTY OF THE STATE OF PENNSYLVANIA comes up when I log on to the Net. request, please. A poor coun
ours doesn't get voice-interacts.
I can use the Net pretty well. I finished all the high-school software by fifteen and so I was legally done, which is lucky be
somebody had to look after Precious. Donna never did finish. I type my request in the only format the public terminals accept:

тАв PERSONAL SEARCH
тАв WANTED: BASIC OVERVIEW, MOST RECENT
тАв LENGTH: 2,000 WORDS
тАв LEVEL: COLLEGE FRESHMAN
тАв SUBJEST: SLEEPLESSNESS IN DOGS

I read the answer off the screen. Printouts cost money. It doesn't tell me much, mostly that research on sleeplessness in dogs
after sleeplessness in people, because monkeys had served as both the basic lab animals and the primary beta-test subjects. What is known
sleeplessness in canines "indicates that its mechanisms are similar to those in humans. The same side effects were reported as those obse
sleepless peopleтАФsleepless dogs were physiologically calmer, ate more, never slept, displayed increased resistance to disease." The dogs u
the research had been various breeds, but mostly small because it was easier to house and exercise them. All ha
destroyed. There is no FDA approval for genemod canine sleeplessness and it isn't legal to take the sleepless dogs out of labora-
tories. There's been no applications to fund the FDA approval process, since "no one has identified significant market opportunity."
Nothing I don't already know. Nothing I want to know. I type another request.

тАв PERSONAL SEARH
тАв WANTED: BASIC INFORMATION, MOST RECENT
тАв LENGTH: 2,000 WORDS
тАв LEVEL: COLLEGE FRESHMAN
тАв SUBJEST: MARKET OPPORTUNITIES FOR GUARD DOGS IN PENNSYLVANIA

The terminal searches the Net a longish time. no information available. Great. What good is it?
I pick up our food credits at the government office. At the store I spend a long time choosing. If I'm careful, I'l
enough credits left to get new overalls for Precious, the synth kind that dirt slides off of, and that doesn't ever tear. I al
to choose foodstuffs that will stretch: rice, oatmeal, soy, synthmeat. Trouble is, dogs like all those things, too.
The same side effects were reported as those observed in sleepless peopleтАФsleepless dogs were physiologically calmer, ate
never slept, displayed increased resistance to disease. "Ate more": that was the problem. I figure out where to hide some of the
so there will actually be some left for us by the end of the month. No matter what Daddy and Donna think, Precious comes before Leisha a
pups. Dogs aren't people.
 They're cute, though. I have to admit that. Their names, until they're sold anyway, are Tony, Kevin, Richard, Jack, and Bill.
named them after the sleepless she sees on the news. Tony Indivino, the loudmouth who thinks Sleepless should live in their own separate g
city, away from norms. Kevin Baker, the first Sleepless ever engineered. Richard Keller, Leisha Camden's boyfriend. Jack Bellingham, a rich in
William Thaine, a supersmart Harvard lawyer. I imagine how these people might feel if they knew illegal mutts are named after them.