"Kim Stanley Robinson - Forty Signs of Rain" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Kim Stanley)

to party.

тАЬWait, letтАЩs change your diaper first.тАЭ

тАЬNO!тАЭ

тАЬAh come on Joe. Yes.тАЭ

тАЬNO!тАЭ

тАЬBut yes.тАЭ

They fought like maniacs through a diaper change, each ruthless and determined, each shouting, beating,
pinching. Charlie followed Jackie SilvaтАЩs lead and did the necessary things.

Red-faced and sweating, finally they were ready to emerge from the house into the steambath of the city.
Out they went. Down to the Metro, down into that dim cool underground world.
 It would have been good if the Metro pacified Joe as it once had Nick, but in fact it usually energized
him. Charlie could not understand that; he himself found the dimness and coolness a powerful soporific.
But Joe wanted to play around just above the drop to the power rail, he was naturally attracted to that
enormous source of energy. The hundred-thousand-watt child. Charlie ran around keeping Joe from the
edge, like Jackie Silva keeping the ball off the sand.

Finally a train came. Joe liked the Metro cars. He stood on the seat next to Charlie and stared at the
concrete walls sliding by outside the tinted windows of the car, then at the bright orange or pink seats, the
ads, the people in their car, the brief views of the underground stations they stopped in.

A young black man got on carrying a helium-filled birthday balloon. He sat down across the car from
Charlie and Joe. Joe stared at the balloon, boggled by it. Clearly it was for him a kind of miraculous
object. The youth pulled down on its string and let the balloon jump back up to its full extension. Joe
jerked, then burst out laughing. His giggle was like his momтАЩs, a low gorgeous burbling. People in the car
grinned to hear it. The young man pulled the balloon down again, let it go again. Joe laughed so hard he
had to sit down. People began to laugh with him, they couldnтАЩt help it. The young man was smiling shyly.
He did the trick again and now the whole car followed Joe into paroxysms of laughter. They laughed all
the way to Metro Center.

Charlie got out, grinning, and carried Joe to the Blue/Orange level. He marveled at the infectiousness of
moods in a group. Strangers who would never meet again, unified suddenly by a youth and a toddler
playing a game. By laughter. Maybe the real oddity was how much oneтАЩs fellow citizens were usually like
furniture in oneтАЩs life.

Joe bounced in CharlieтАЩs arms. He liked Metro CenterтАЩs crisscrossing mysterious vastness. The incident
of the balloon was already forgotten. It had been unremarkable to him; he was still in that stage of life
where all the evidence supported the idea that he was the center of the universe, and miracles happened.
Kind of like a U.S. Senator.

Luckily Phil Chase was not like that. Certainly Phil enjoyed his life and his public role, it reminded
Charlie of what he had read about FDRтАЩs attitude toward the presidency. But that was mostly a matter of
being the star of oneтАЩs own movie; thus, just like everyone else. No, Phil was very good to work for,
Charlie thought, which was one of the ultimate tests of a person.