"Steve Perry - Matador 5 - The 97th Step" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

'The second stroke landed, overlapping the first only slightly. His father was an
expert with the strap, God knew he had enough practice! The burn spread.

How can you allow this, God? How can the God of the Biblioscript, who is
supposedly just and merciful, allow me to be whipped for something that wasn't
my fault? Where is the Justice in that? The Mercy of Heavenly Love?

The third lash smacked into him, farther down his back. That one hurt more, there
was a bruise there from the Hitter's rough landing. The whippings themselves left
no permanent marksтАФhis father had made the strap wide enough to spread the
pain without cutting the skinтАФbut they did hurt. Although lately, it was not so
much the pain as the unfairness of it. He would have replaced the damned coil,
had it been up to him! But noтАФ!

"Beg the Lord's forgiveness, son! Change your sinning ways!"

Crouched under the flailing strap in the cold light of the exterior lamps, Mwili
prayed. Take him now, God. Take him and take this whole fucking planet!

His only answer was the whistling of the strap, and the dust it raised from his
jacket when it landed.

His mother sat on the worn form-chair, pretending to read from the Holy Script
when Mwili walked past her toward his room. The worn and old electronic reader

file:///C|/2590%20Sci-Fi%20and%20Fantasy%2...0Matador%2005%20-%20The%2097th%20Step.html (12 of 313) [12/29/2004 12:32:31 AM]
 Perry, Steve - The 97th Step


on her lap hummed constantly, and squeaked each time she pushed the cheap
mechanical button to advance the text on the small screen. She spared him a quick
glance when he passed, then stared back down at the dim and flickery gray screen
of the reader, lest her husband see her offering any kind of sympathy to her son.
As an adult, she was not subject to the strap, but an hour's lecture on one Rule or
another was not uncommon. Himself, Mwili preferred the strap to the preaching.

The boy did not speak. Later, when Mafuta was asleep, she might visit the fresher,
and risk a side trip to his room, for a quick word or affectionate touch with her
son. Only then.

In his room, Mwili knew he was too tired to wait for his mother's possible visit.
The trip to town, loading the supplies, then unloading and walking from Three
Rocks had been enough to exhaust him. Fifteen from the strap had finished the job
completely. He was bone-weary, and in his misery, could only think of one thing:
he had to get out. Somehow, he had to get away from his father, from Cibule, from
the Svare System altogether. There were twenty-two other explored star systems
out there, somewhere, fifty-odd inhabited worlds, and scores of wheel worlds. The
Confed took a heavy tax from every planet to push Bender ships out to explore yet
more systems and worlds. Among all that, there had to be places better than here.