"Oltion-BeforeChristmas" - читать интересную книгу автора (Oltion Jerry)

and said, "See you in another life, sexy."

Sarah nodded. "Bye."

He closed the door and pushed the "go" button.

The shower was still running when he opened the door again. He heard Sarah and
himself giggling softly as they made love and thought briefly about joining them
for a quick threesome, but the morning had really been going just about perfect
without modification. Besides, his foot hurt like hell. Better just take care of
business and get it over with.

He padded down the hallway, then stopped. Blood trail. Christ, that'd be just as
hard to clean up as the cereal would. Shrugging, he went on into the kitchen,
grabbed a wad of paper towels, and padded back to the backspacer. He wrapped the
paper towels around his foot, set the timer for five minutes further back, and
pushed "go" again.

The shower was just starting up when he opened the door. The floor was clean.
Mike hobbled into the living room, set the telephone ringer to "gentle," and
turned back toward the backspacer, but as usual when he'd made a change that
created a paradox, he didn't have to climb all the way back in and push the
"return" button. The universe, ever tidy in such matters, took care of that for
him. He didn't feel a thing when it edited him out of existence.

The phone rang while Mike was reading the morning newsnet for Christmas ads. He
laid down the scanner, took a bite of cereal, and reached behind him to the
kitchen counter for the phone. Propping it up on the table, he swallowed and
switched it on after the third ring. "Wilson residence."

"Michael? Penzley here. Just calling to confirm that you've got the new Bundy
ads ready for us today."

Michael looked over to his briefcase lying on the floor beside the table. Hmmm,
that bowl of cereal looked awfully close to the edge. He nudged it farther
inward while he said, "No problem, sir. They're sitting in my briefcase, ready
to go."

"Good. I knew we could count on you. See you at nine."

"See you then." Mike switched off the phone and turned back to the newsscreen.
Nine o'clock. That left him just under an hour to find a present for Sarah
before he went to the office. Plenty of time, if he just knew what to buy her.
That was always the rob, though, wasn't it? When he asked her what she wanted,
she just smiled coyly and said, "Oh, I already have everything I want," which
was very flattering but no help at all. After Christmas, of course, she would go
out and buy whatever it was she'd been hoping for all along, but she never told
him what it was ahead of time. No, she evidently thought it was his job to
figure that out on his own.