"Rudy Rucker - The Men in the Back Room at the Country Club" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rucker Rudy)

Rainey Langhorne.

Setting down his bicycle and stepping up onto his home's porch this morning, Jack had seen his mother in
a lip lock with Doug Langhorne. And then Mom had seen Jack seeing her. And then, to make it truly
stomach-churning, Jack had seen Lenore and her children in the shadows of the dining room, witnessing
the kiss as well. The couple broke their clinch; Jack walked in and took his sunglasses; Lenore let out a
convulsive sob; Doug cleared his throat and said, "We have to talk."

"Daddy kissed Jack's mommy!" cried Banks Langhorne, a fat little girl with a low forehead. Her brother
Rainey and her sisters Price and Sydnor took up the cry. "Daddy's gonna get it, Daddy's gonna get it,
Daddy's gonna get it..." There was something strange about the children's ears; they were pointed at the
tips, like the ears of devils or of pigs. The children joined hands in a circle around Doug and Jessie and
began dancing a spooky Ring-Around-The-Rosie. Lenore was trying to talk through her racking sobs.
Doug was bumblingly trying to smooth things over. Mom was looking around the room with an
expression of distaste, as if wondering how she'd ended up here. On the breakfast table, the juice in the
children's glasses was unaccountably swirling, as if there were a tiny whirlpool in each. Jack rushed
outside, jumped on his bike and rode to work, leaving the children's chanting voices behind.

Jack had pretty much avoided thinking about it all day, and what should he think anyway? It was Jessie's
business who she kissed. And surely he'd only imagined the pointed ears on those dreadful piggy
children. But what about Lenore? Although Lenore was like a dusty stuffed plush thing that made you
sneeze, she was nice. She'd always been good to Jack. Her sob was maybe the saddest thing he'd ever
heard. Grainy, desperate, hopeless, deep. What did the kiss mean for Mom's future as the church
secretary? What did it bode for Doug Langhorne's position as rector? What a mess.

Jack's plan was to stay out most of the night or all of the night with his friends, grab his suitcase in the
morning, and get the 8:37 bus to Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg. And there he'd begin his
real life. Let Mom and Lenore and Doug work things out in pawky, filthy Killeville. Jack's bag was
packed. He was ready to set off for the great outer world!

With these thoughts running in his head, he followed Gretchen to the parking-lot, Tonel tagging along.
Mr. Karst was mounted in his battered second-hand Ford SUV. Sitting next to him was an unkempt,
overweight, luminously white guy smoking a filter cigarette. "Albert Chesney!" exclaimed Gretchen.

"Him!" said Jack. The thirty-year-old Albert Chesney was a Day Six Synodite and a convicted computer
criminal. He'd just gotten parole; his advent had been a topic in the Killeville Daily News for several
days. Three years ago, Chesney had brought down the entire Internet for a week with his infamous
email, which had combined the nastiest features of spam, hypnotism, a virus, a pyramid
scheme, a con-game, a worm and a denial-of-service attack. At the cost of infecting seven hundred
million machines, had netted seven converts to the Day Six Synod.

"Don't ride with him, Gretchen," said Jack, suddenly visualizing a defenseless big-eyed fetus within
Gretchen's slightly curved belly. He seemed to recall that Chesney had always been interested in
Gretchen. Chesney was single, with no relatives.

"Oh, now you're all protective?" said Gretchen. "Don't worry. I can handle myself. Welcome back,
Albert. Are you fully rehabilitated?"

"I've hoed a long, lonely row," sighed Albert Chesney. His voice was husky; his head was big and
crooked as a jack-o'-lantern. "The Pharisees say I'm not allowed to live in a house with computers. What

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