"William Sleator - Interstellar Pig" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sleator William)

out for the beach. It was the first such day we'd had for a while, and Mom was
way behind on her tan. I accompanied them just to see who was there. It was
well before noon, but the usual beach denizens were already ensconced: the old
ladies with short-legged beach chairs and decks of cards, withered pink flesh
drooping out of their ruffled suits; the shrieking toddlers with buckets and
plastic swim toys; the gleaming adolescents, as stiff and carefully positioned
as dark sarcophagi beside their radios, coming to life only to anoint
themselves with more oil and solemnly, ritualistically press their blackened
forearms together. In minutes, Mom joined their ranks, her comparative pallor
giving her the look of a greased corpse. I retreated to the safe darkness of
the house.

I decided to take my book out to the front porch, which offered a view of the
bayтАФnot to mention a view of the patio next door, where our neighbors
22

INTERSTELLAR PIG 23

were setting up a table for breakfast. I didn't know them well enough yet to
feel comfortable about joining them uninvited. But I did want them to see that
I was available and idle, ready to be included in any games or expeditions. I
pretended to read.

They still seemed preoccupied by their game of the night before. They spoke in
hushed voices, but I could hear enough to tell that they were arguing about
the best escape route from a maze on some foreign planet.

Then, abruptly, and in a much louder voice, Zena announced, "These tomatoes
taste ersatz."

Joe remarked in equally artificial tones that the word ersatz came from a
German noun meaning "substitute," first used in 1875.1 wondered if they had
realized I was listening, and were changing the subject for my benefit.

"How come I never know obscure little data like that?" asked Manny.

"Because you never read a word besides fantasy and science fiction," said Zena
disdainfully.

"You should mention! Regard the books you brought here. The Flame, the Power
and the Passion; The Body in the Library."

"But I also brought Principles of Intensive Psychotherapy," she pointed out.
"Unlike you, I'm not totally self-involved."

They were both beginning to giggle. "Self-involved!" Manny exclaimed. "How can
anybody vain enough to let her fingernails grow as grotesquely long as yours
talk about self-involved? Observe her, Joe. She can barely even grasp her
coffee cup with those claws."