"Pike, Christopher - Whisper Of Death.(1991)TXT" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pike Christopher)

slave for the next eighteen years. I could hurt it. I
could kill it. But Dr. Adams assured me it would be a
painless death. Without consciousness, there could be
no agony, and the doctor said that an immature fetus
had zero awareness. I believed him.

Dr. Adams made the appointment for me at the
family planning clinic on Saturday in Foster. Because
he had already completed all the necessary tests it was
not required that I come in beforehand. All I had to
do was show up for the procedure. The time was set
for five-thirty in the morning. Apparently the sur-
geons liked to get rid of nasty business early so they
could spend the rest of the day saving lives. The cost
for the abortion would be four hundred and sixty-two
dollars. The clinic wanted to be paid up front. Pepper
insisted on covering it all, but I said, no, we'd split it. I
only had three hundred dollars in the bank to begin
with. Condoms would have been cheaper. A heart
transplant would have been easier. All my talk was
just talk. As we drove to Foster the night before,
Friday, I felt I was driving to my death.

We decided to get a motel in Foster and sleep, but
we ended up talking till it was time to go to the clinic.
My dad was out of town, and Pepper's aunt and uncle
thought he was camping with a friend. The clinic was
located in a small professional office building. It was
still dark as we parked my car and walked inside. A
plump middle-aged woman looked up from behind a
gray metal desk. She may have been a nurse; she was
all in white. A mole the size of a quarter, complete
with fine brown hairs, occupied the left side of her
generous chin. There were no other women present.

"Are you Roxanne?" the woman asked.

"Yes. Are we early?" The place was plainly fur-
nished and smelled of alcohol.

"A few minutes." The woman was all business. She
reached for a handful of forms. "Fill these out, please.
Will you be paying with cash or check?"

"I'll just put it on my expense account," I said.

"Pardon?" the woman said. She had heard me, but
didn't like my sense of humor.

"Cash," Pepper said sourly, reaching for his wallet.