"Jerry Oltion - The Love Song of Laura Morrison" - читать интересную книгу автора (Oltion Jerry)

The Love Song of Laura Morrison
by Jerry Oltion
This story copyright 1987 by Jerry Oltion. This copy was created for Jean Hardy's personal use. All
other rights are reserved. Thank you for honoring the copyright.

Published by Seattle Book Company, www.seattlebook.com.

* * *


Teigh was unpacking when he heard the sound at the window. He looked up from the pressure crate,
but he could see nothing outside that might have made a noise; only the landscape curving upward in the
distance. He looked out at it for a moment, then shrugged and turned back to the crate, lifting out a twist
of gnarled wood that looked like a miniature oak tree in winter, which was in fact part of a pine's root
system turned upside down. It had cost him nearly five hundred dollars to ship along, but ever since he
had found it sticking out of an icy riverbank nearly ten years ago he had taken it with him wherever he
went. Its weathered branches held for him the essence of Earth, a moment of life frozen in its struggle
with the elements.
He stood with it cradled in his hands while he turned once around in search of an appropriate spot for
his treasure, and he heard it again. A kind of high-pitched squeak, like a bearing going out, or...
Or a kitten, hanging onto the ivy that grew along the divider between his apartment and the next,
looking down over one shoulder the way kittens do when they're thinking about jumping.
Teigh set his tree down on the bed and stepped to the window. He still wasn't used to the light gravity
in the colony and he didn't know what the varying rate would do to a falling object's velocity, but he was
pretty sure that a three-story fall wouldn't do a kitten any good even here. He opened the window gently
so he wouldn't scare it into jumping, reached out from below, and pulled it in, saying, "Well, little thing.
Where did you come from?"
The kitten was gray and white and practically all fuzz. It looked up at him and meowed again.
Teigh stuck his head back out the window and looked along the building. The ivy originated from the
apartment below and to the right; a perfect trellis for climbing kittens.
"So," he said as he pulled his head back in. "You're checking out your new neighbor. Hello. Nice to
meet you." He let the kitten pull its legs up until it was standing in the palm of his hand. It couldn't have
been much over two months old. "You're cute," he told it, "but I'll bet your mother wonders where you
are."
He looked out the window again, but he saw nobody below and he didn't feel like shouting. "Well," he
said, "I guess it's time I did a little visiting myself."
***


The nameplate on the door said Laura Morrison. Teigh looked down at the kitten in his hand and
cocked an eyebrow. Single? He pushed the doorbell.
A voice from within said, "Just a minute," and there were some bumping sounds, then the door opened
to reveal a white-haired woman in her seventies or so. Teigh tried to hide his disappointment.
"Hi, I'm Teigh Kuhlow, from upstairs in 308," he said. "I, uh, I found your kitten climbing on the ivy."
The woman nodded wearily and reached out for it. "Not surprising. Sorry. I'll close the window."
Teigh shook his head. "Oh, no. I didn't mean that. I didn't mind, really. I was just afraid he'd fall. I, uh,
I like kittens."
She lowered her hand and looked at him through squinted eyes. "You do."
 "Sure. Who doesn't?"
The woman smiled for the first time. "The last guy who lived up there, for one. Hah. Well, come on in,