"James Lovegrove - The House Of Lazarus" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lovegrove James)

talking to you, now please нн it's these shoes, you know нн wuhwwwwell, if
you want to buy it, buy it нн someone at the door, would you нн yes нн
hahhhhhello? is someone listening? I know someone's listening. Hello?
Hello? Who is that? Who's there, please?<
"Hi, Mum," said Joey. "It's me."
>Joey! How nice of you to drop by. It's so good to hear your voice. Been a
while, hasn't it?<
"Just three days, Mum."
>Three days? It seems an awful lot longer than that. It's so easy to lose
track of time, isn't it? Well, anywayЕ How have you been keeping?<
"I'm well. And you?"
>I must be all right, mustn't I? Nothing much changes in here, so I
suppose I must be staying the same. Are you quite sure it's only been
three days? I try and keep a count of the number of times they wake me.
The news. And that dreadful music. Mantovani, ManilowЕ<
"OK, maybe not three. A few days."
>You shouldn't feel you have to lie to me, Joey.<
"I've been meaning to get down more often, Mum, but what with one thing
and anotherЕ"
>It's all right, Joey. I do understand. There are plenty of things more
important than your old mother. Plenty of things. How's work?<
"Oh, OK. Same as usual."
>It's not a job for a bright boy like you, taking shopping orders. It's a
waste of your talents.<
"It's all I could get, Mum. I'm lucky to have a job at all."
>And have you found yourself a nice girl yet?<
"Not yet."
>Don't make it sound like such a trial, Joey. I'm only asking. This isn't
an interrogation. I only want to know if you're happy.<
"I'm happy, Mum."
>Well, that's good, then. And the flat? Have you had the cockroach problem
sorted out?<
"I rang the Council yesterday. They said they'd already sent a man round
to deal with it, but he never turned up. I think he must have been mugged
on the way. I read somewhere there's a thriving black market in bug-dust.
You can sell it to rich kids as cocaine and poor kids as heroin."
>Really, Joey, you ought to have moved out of the wharf district by now.
Even with a job like yours, surely you can afford somewhere a bit nicer.
There's lots of new property being built. I heard it on the news.
Residential blocks are popping up all over the city like mushrooms. Why do
you insist on staying where you are?<
"I like it there."
>That's as maybe, but I don't like the idea of you being there.<
"I can't afford the down-payment on another place."
>Oh, rot! There must be more than enough left over from the money your
father left us.<
"Mum, it's not as straightforward as that."
>Seems perfectly straightforward to me.<
"Well, it would, wouldn't it?" Joey was aware of raising his voice. In
that great archetraved ocean of cryogenic susurration-and-sigh, it was the