"Kim Newman - Tomorrow Town" - читать интересную книгу автора (Newman Kim)

Tomorrow Town
by Kim Newman


This way to the Yeer 2000.

The message, in Helvetica typeface, was repeated on arrow-shaped signs.

"That'll be us, Vanessa," said Richard Jeperson, striding along the platform
in the indicated direction, toting his shoulder-slung hold-all. He tried to
feel as if he were about to time-travel from 1971 to the future, though in
practice he was just changing trains.

Vanessa was distracted by one of the arrow signs, fresh face arranged in a
comely frown. Richard's associate was a tall redhead in hot pants, halter top,
beret, and stack-heeled go-go bootsтАФall blinding white, as if fresh from the
machine in a soap-powder advert. She drew unconcealed attention from
late-morning passengers milling about the railway station. Then again, in his
lime day-glo blazer edged with gold braid and salmon-pink bell-bottom
trousers, so did he. Here in Preston, the fashion watchword, for the
eighteenth consecutive season, was "drab."

"It's misspelled," said Vanessa. "Y-double-E-R."

"No, it's F-O-N-E-T-I-K," he corrected. "Within the next thirty years, English
spelling will be rationalised."

"You reckon?" She pouted, skeptically.

"Not my theory," he said, stroking his mandarin moustaches. "I assume the
lingo will muddle along with magical illogic as it has since the Yeer Dot But
orthographic reform is a tenet of Tomorrow Town."

"Alliteration. Very Century 21."

They had travelled up from London, sharing a rattly first-class carriage and a
welcome magnum of Bollinger with a liberal bishop on a lecture tour billed as
"Peace and the Pill" and a working-class playwright revisiting his slag-heap
roots. To continue their journey, Richard and Vanessa had to change at
Preston.

The arrows led to a guarded gate. The guard wore a British Rail uniform in
shiny black plastic with silver highlights. His oversized cap had a chemical
lighting element in the brim.

"You need special tickets, Ms and Mm," said the guard.

"Mm," said Vanessa, amused.

"Ms," Richard buzzed at her.