"Stross, Charles - A Boy And His God" - читать интересную книгу автора (Stross Charles)Gobble, said Junior; grubble gurgle grunt snoo-oo-ork! She bounced the front wheels of the board from side to side, nearly falling off it in her agitation.
"Hey," said Howie, "I think you've got Junior excited. Now you've seen him, what do you want?" "Well," said Candy, swinging her hips suggestively, "you can come with me, hang out with the gang for a while, right? Maybe Ц" her eyes flickered from side to side Ц "we could kiss. You want to be my boyfriend?" "Ung," said Howie, who had half-expected an invitation to be her punchbag. Junior jumped up and down and the skateboard squeaked. He seemed to be getting awfully indignant about something, Howie realized through the haze of his disconcertion. "Come on," coaxed Candy, taking his hand. "Come this way?" Now the trouble was about to begin. It was about to begin because of a single technical problem; Howie's walkman didn't have auto-reverse. The tape had come to the end of the side, and Junior could hear everything. (The fact that Howie'd screwed the headphones into her genitals notwithstanding; sensitive skin, y'know, picks up vibrations.) Now it takes a lot to get an Elder God jealous, especially a very young, very inexperienced Elder God, but there's one lesson that all Gods are born knowing, and that's that once your worshippers get all starry-eyed and start making love all over the place you lose all hold over their guilt; and without guilt, where is the motive for prayer? For obedience? Junior thought she was about to be jilted, with good reason. And unlike a powerful Big God Person of days gone by, Junior had no priesthood to pronounce anathema upon the couple; so she/he/it decided to take matters into his/her/it's own claws/palps/tentacles. Howie, entranced, turned his back upon Junior and revelled in the warm, tight grip of his very first girlfriend as she led him towards the lights and the company of her gang. As they reached the kerb, she stopped suddenly and turned, so that he found himself walking into her open arms. Surprise. They closed around him Ц so unlike the choke-grip of classroom days Ц and he found his lips touching something soft and yielding and moist and utterly different that seemed to promise the future to him. He didn't fight or struggle; it was too much fun. Mortitia, who was too young for this, looked away disgustedly while her big sister grinned carnivorously and stretched her black claws out to the couple. Helen J. turned her back grumpily. So it happened that only Bernice noticed the skateboarding punk-rocker of an Elder God on anabolic steroids who was accelerating ominously towards them from way back down the boulevard, sparks grating from the skateboard wheels, squatting in a kind of schuss position and gnashing her ominously long, needle-sharp teeth. Junior glowed, glowed with the rage of a deity scorned, shone with the light of steroid-induced psychosis, the violent flare of martyrdom and a hundred bloody jihads as she rumbled down the street in a foaming of orofices and a clattering of lobster claws. And as Junior glowed she grew, bulking higher and broader and more hideous by the moment until she filled the road with a rushing wall of darkness that blotted out the sky and the stars and the promise of rescue. SPLAT! "That was Junior," said Howie, staring in disbelief at the enormous mass draped over the hood of the Mack truck that had been crossing the intersection at exactly the wrong time; "my god!" "Well it sure as hell isn't any more," said Candy pragmatically. "It didn't look too friendly just then!" "A touch Ц" she goosed him Ц "of jealousy. Come on?" But Howie didn't move. He looked at the mess in the road and shook his head. "Do you believe it?" he murmured to himself; "there went my walkman and my best ole Dead Kennedys tape!" He shook his head again but, to his surprise, he didn't shed a tear. Gods have always preyed on ignorance; and Howie, as he turned his back on it, had more important things to think about. Version History If you modify this text, please retain this version history. Ver 1.5 - 30/7/2003 - Anarchy Publications, HaVoK - This version was originally downloaded from the #bookz channel on undernet using mIRC. The final proof was done with Atlantis by Rising Sun Solutions. |
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