"Mike Resnick - A Princess of Earth" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

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Copyright 2004 by Mike Resnick

First published in Asimov's SF Magazine, December 2004

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When Lisa died I felt like my soul had been ripped out of my body, and what
was left wasn't worth the powder to blow it to hell. To this day I don't even
know what she died of; the doctors tried to tell me why she had collapsed and
what had killed her, but I just tuned them out. She was dead and I would never
talk to her or touch her again, never share a million unimportant things with
her, and that was the only fact that mattered. I didn't even go to the
funeral; I couldn't bear to look at her in her coffin.

I quit my jobwe'd been counting the days to my retirement so we could finally
spend all our time togetherand I considered selling the house and moving to a
smaller place, but in the end I couldn't do it. There was too much of her
there, things I'd lose forever if I moved away.

I left her clothes in the closet, just the way they'd always been. Her
hairbrush and her perfume and her lipstick remained on the vanity where she'd
kept them neatly lined up. There was a painting of a New England landscape
that I'd never liked much, but since she had loved it I left it hanging where
it was. I had my favorite photos of her blown up and framed, and put them on