"Mike Resnick - Hothouse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Mike)

this year, because it means that we'll decorate the place with bright
colorsand if we like it, why, we'll do it again in 2201. * * * *

I have been married to Felicia for 17 years, and I hardly ever regret it. She
was a little bit pudgy when we met, and she has gotten pudgier over the years
so that now she is honest-to-goodness fat and there is simply no other word
for it. Her hair, which used to be brown, is streaked with gray now, and she's
lost whatever physical grace she once had. But she is a good life partner. Her
taste in holos is similar to mine, so we almost never fight about what to




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watch after dinner, and of course we both love our work.

As we eat dinner, the topic turns to our gardens, as always.

I'm worried about Rex, she confides.

Rex isBegonia rex, her hanging basket.

Oh? I say. What's wrong with him?

She shakes her head in puzzlement. I don't know. Perhaps I've been letting him
gettoo much sun. His leaves are yellowing, and his roots could be in better
shape.

Have you spoken to one of the botonists?

No. They're totally absorbed in cloning that new species ofAglaonema crispum.

Still?

She shrugs. They say it's important.

The damned plant's been around for centuries, I say. I can't see what's so
important about it.

I told you: they engineered an exciting mutation. It actually glows in the
dark, as if it's been dusted with phosphorescent silver paint.

It's not going to put the energy company out of business.

I know. But it's important tothem.

It seems unfair, I say for the hundredth, or maybe the thousandth, time. They
get all the fame and money for creating a new species, and you get paid the
same old salary for keeping it alive.