"Kit Reed - Freezing Geezers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Kit)

Freezing Geezers
a short story
by Kit Reed
Foreword
How does anybody find anybody else in this world? Search engines! OK, I was googling myself,
although I think it was well before google was in her prime. Whatever the search engine, it turned up, I
think it was Simon Ings' review of my Weird Women collection, and believe me, I was stoked. I got in
touch with Keith, we back-and-forthed by e, and I put him in touch with Terry Bisson and a couple of
others who were happy to have their work posted on I-Plus and the site grew. Keith and I met in
London, I sent more stuff; we met in London and I told him about my online community at StoryMOO
and voila, he sat in as resident critic for a term, reading and responding to kids' stuff both in notes and in
our online workshops; then he came to Wesleyan in the States where all this was happening in
meatspace. Then Wesleyan paid my way to do a gig in the UK and during this period I realized that
StoryMoo was a terrific place to do realtime online interviews-- first I talked to Geoff Ryman about Air
and other matters, then Keith on Genetopia, both of which you will find posted on the ancient and
honorable I-Plus. It's all been tremendous fun. But/and, like any thriving organism, I-plus grew
exponentially until it hit what seems to be the ideal optimum size. I can only hope some hard-copy
publisher will find a way to collect and publish all the treasures collected here for posterity -- and people
like me. Meanwhile, a farewell story, to mark my final contribution to the final chapter. Ave atque vale,
cheers and all that. Oh, and excelsior!



Freezing Geezers
Everybody wants to live forever, but in order to do this, Barry Whittimore has arranged to pre-die. He
wants to do this while he is still young and good looking, because he is rich enough to afford the process
and pay for maintenance into the next millennium, if that's what it takes.

Besides, why wait until you get cancer or some other gross disease that medicine may never figure out
how to cure? Think young. Stay young. Go while you're still buff and attractive, just the way you are!
Isn't that much, much better? Go out before you get too feeble to restore. Do it while you're on a roll and
come back when improved technology in the areas of cosmetic surgery and, ahem, masculine
enhancement catches up with your needs.

Barry is a handsome, sexy, vital seventy-five. He is a rich, fit and versatile CEO, one of the world's
movers and shakers, lucky man! He's also a gifted amateur painter in the outsider vein, in his spare time
Barry does Florida landscapes on driftwood planks his assistants go out before dawn to collect before
the tide catches them or the beach sweepers carry them away. He especially loves art openings; the
tourists are crazy about his paintings, partly because he comes on like a romantic beachcomber who lives
in a palmetto shack instead of the witty, wealthy man that he is.

They have no idea that he goes home at night to a waterfront villa he picked up for a song. It's valued in
the mid-seven figures, now that he's fixed it up. He's brought home some lovely women from those
sidewalk art shows. House is filled with and cold running girlfriends, arrayed around the indoor-outdoor
pool and draped on overstuffed sofas, slow dancing on the terrazzo floors. He loves to come upon his
girls wandering the halls in their thongs and tankinis, chattering and giggling as they run around enhancing
the decor. And they love it when he wanders out and bumps into them, except lately he's seen his girls'
expressions change when they see him coming and they don't wriggle and laugh the way they used to
when he pounces on them.