"Spider Robinson - The Free Lunch" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robinson Spider)

CHAPTER 2

UNDER
. . . and she walked straight into a boulder and vanished.

He followed without hesitation - not because he grasped that the boulder was a hologram, but simply because
he was in shock. When he passed through it himself, things changed too fast for him to integrate. Nearly at
once he encountered another wall, and his knees and face proved this one was not a hologram. He
rebounded, his vision dithering, and would have gone down again if she had not caught him. Both her grip and
her arms were too strong for someone her size. She smells like a robot, he thought. Like machine oil.
"Always turn right," she murmured in his ear.

"Huh?"

She stood him on his feet, released him, and stepped back. "In Dreamworld, if you walk through something
you thought was there, always turn right. It's a rule of thumb." She pointed.

Sure enough, the concealed corridor they were in now de-bouched to their right. He filed the information and
studied her.

She was exactly his own height, which was not impressive even for a twelve-year-old, but she was
unquestionably an adult. Face and voice confirmed it, as did body language now that she was no longer
imitating a robot. She was a midget. Not a Dwarf, but a perfectly proportioned small person. With powerful
arms and hands. Her wrinkled features, the smoky rasp in her voice, and the great dignity with which she
carried herself made him think of a maiden aunt or a school principal, but somehow she would not have fit
into either pigeonhole even if she were not dressed as a robot Elf. She was old enough and certainly sour
enough . . . but she wasn't sad enough.

She's not lonely, he thought, and wondered how he could know such a thing about her.

"My fault," she went on. "I should have caught you as you came through. I assumed if you got this far, you
knew that much."

"This is only the third time I've been all the way backstage," he said. "And I got caught right away the other
times. Like under a minute."

"You're getting better," she said. "This was a good place. You'd have made it if you hadn't fallen. This far, at
least."

"Yeah, I guess." He inspected his shin. "Thanks," he added belatedly, realizing he had been complimented.
"Uh . . . who are you?"

"Annie."

"Oh. Uh . . . hi, Annie."

"Don't say uh - it's unbecoming. I have an excuse to grunt; you don't."

"Huh?"