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

I knew neither of us had imagined we'd be spending
our hard-earned money this way.

I filled out the forms. I had the wild thought in the
middle of them that one day I would run for presi-
dent, and that the forms would be dug up by my
opponent, and used to smear my good name. So I
changed a few things about myself, including the
spelling of my last name, and where I lived, and so on.
I mean, it wasn't as if I wanted to receive the clinic's
monthly newsletter.

Pepper sat silently beside me as I wrote. If it had
been him who was filling out the forms, then I would
have probably helped him. He did worse in school
than I did. Our child probably would have been
retarded, I consoled myself as I finished the papers
and gave them back to the mean woman. I was talking
to myself a mile a minute, the whole rationalizing trip,
but I spoke like someone was listening to me. The
baby, of course-I imagined she could hear my
mental dialogue. And although she remained silent
throughout, I had a sense of how she felt, and the
feeling was not pleasant.

A man suddenly appeared in the doorway. He was
dressed in a sterile green gown, serious and intimidat-
ing. He was over six and a half feet tall, and seated as I
was, his covered head looked like something in orbit.
He glanced briefly at me before his eyes moved to the
woman behind the desk.

"I'm ready for our first patient, Carol," he said.

Then he closed the door, and was gone. The woman
lumbered up from behind her desk. "Come this way,"
she said.

I stood, Pepper with me. We hugged each other
briefly. "It'll all be over before you know it," he said.

"I know." I pressed my mouth to his ear, whisper-
ing, "Love you."

"Rox-" he began.

"Best we hurry," the woman interrupted.

I let go of Pepper. "Goodbye," I said.