"Laura Resnick - Ever Since Eden" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Laura)

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Ever Since Eden
by Laura Resnick
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Copyright (c)1994 Laura Resnick
First published in South From Midnight, Southern Fried Press, November 1994

Fictionwise Contemporary
Science Fiction and Fantasy


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The dream always begins the same way. I'm in the reptile house at the
zoo. How did I get here? I am incredulous. I never go into the reptile house.
The last time I was in here was 1975, when my skunk of a brother dragged me
inside by my left braid and smooshed my face against the glass of the coral
snake's cage.
The musty smell in here is unmistakable, remembered across the span of
years. It is a reptilian odor, the stench of something legless and silent. It
is mingled with the smell of my own fear.
It is shadowy in this building, as it always has been, and each shadow
is a slithering menace. I must leave immediately. If I don't, I'll undoubtedly
have nightmares tonight. I begin looking for the exit. I try to be casual,
nonchalant. I don't want the other visitors to know I'm sweating with terror
and trying not to throw up. I've vomited in here before, but that was
twenty-five years ago. I'm a grown woman now, and it would be very
embarrassing.
Then I realize there are no other visitors. Just me. I'm all alone in
here. With _them_. I start to panic. I run toward the exit, but it just gets
farther away. The hall grows larger, longer, darker. And narrower. The
glass-fronted cages are suddenly very close to me, lining either side of this
endless tunnel.
I try to swallow my terror and think clearly. This is a public
building. There has to be a way out. Sinuous figures twist, rise, slide, and
twine in my peripheral vision. A triangular shaped head weaves toward me. I
leap forward. A pointed tail wiggles away from me.
I realize there is no glass in front of the cages.
There is nothing between them and me. I panic.
They start escaping. Slowly, at first, one by one. A green mamba slides
to the floor and blocks my path. A gaboon viper -- short, fat, and deadly --