"Geoff Ryman - Pol Pots Beautifull Daughter" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ryman Geoff)

building and rolled open the metal shutters.
The shop was packed from floor to ceiling with
photocopies. The ground floor had no windowsтАФthe room had
been filled from the inside. The owner pulled out a sheet of
paper and saw himself on the ground, his head beaten in by a
hoe. The same image was on every single page.
He buried the photocopiers and sold the house at once.
The new owner liked its haunted reputation; it kept people
away. The FOR SALE sign was left hanging from the second
floor.
In a sense, the house had been bought by another ghost.
This is a completely untrue story about someone who must
exist.
****



4
 Pol Pot's Beautiful Daughter
by Geoff Ryman


Pol Pot's only child, a daughter, was born in 1986. Her
name was Sith, and in 2004, she was eighteen years old.
Sith liked air conditioning and luxury automobiles.
Her hair was dressed in cornrows and she had a spiky
piercing above one eye. Her jeans were elaborately slashed
and embroidered. Her pink T-shirts bore slogans in English:
CARE KOOKY. PINK MOLL.
Sith lived like a woman on Thai television, doing as she
pleased in lip-gloss and Sunsilked hair. Nine simple rules
helped her avoid all unpleasantness.
1. Never think about the past or politics.
2. Ignore ghosts. They cannot hurt you.
3. Do not go to school. Hire tutors. Don't do homework. It
is disturbing.
4. Always be driven everywhere in either the Mercedes or
the BMW.
5. Avoid all well-dressed Cambodian boys. They are the
sons of the estimated 250,000 new generals created by the
regime. Their sons can behave with impunity.
6. Avoid all men with potbellies. They eat too well and
therefore must be corrupt.
7. Avoid anyone who drives a Toyota Viva or Honda Dream
motorcycle.
8. Don't answer letters or phone calls.
9. Never make any friends.
There was also a tenth rule, but that went without saying.
Rotten fruit rinds and black mud never stained Sith's
designer sports shoes. Disabled beggars never asked her for