"Michael Swanwick - Walking Out" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swanwick Michael)

cubby to throw on robe and slippers. Then he headed out, leaving his wife
weeping behind him.
It was a wonderful morning!



On the elevator, Mrs. Jacinto from two floors up smiled and said hello.
Her husband, Herb, was a municipal gardener, as tall as she was fat, and a
dab hand at cribbage. Terry had played him a few times and the man was
definitely a shark. "How are you doing this lovely morning, Mr. Bissel?"
"Couldn't be betterтАФwe're going to move."
"Well, isn't that nice? I expected you children would, now that you have
the little one on the way. Oh, and that reminds me. Tell that pretty wife of
yours I have some morning sickness tea that I'm bringing up later on; I
know you'll think it's foolishness, but tell her to give it a try, it really does
work. Are you moving Downtown?"
"We're leaving the city altogether, Mrs. Jacinto. We're moving to the
country."
The smile froze on her face. "Well," she said. "Well, well."
The doors opened for the ground floor and she skittered away.
 It was a quick hop-skip-and-jump across the street to The Java Tree.
On the way back, Terry plucked a daisyтАФperhaps one of Herb'sтАФfrom the
street turf. He opened the top of the coffee sack and buried the stem in the
beans.
"You'll be going to the Housing Authority today, won't you?" Kris asked
when he got back. She accepted the coffee, filled a glass with water for the
daisy, and put it up on the window sill without comment. Ignoring their
earlier conversation entirely, pretending it had never happened. "Like you
promised?"
Well, getting out was a new idea. It would probably take her a while to
adjust to it. "Why not?" Terry said, playing along. "If we want a bigger
apartment, we'll have to move, right? And if we want to move, one of us is
going to have to go stand in line. That's just the way it is. Doesn't matter
what you want, you've got to stand in line." He winked jauntily.
"I'd go myself," Kris said in a strained voice. "I don't mind. It's just
thatтАФ" She looked down at the Creature.
"Hey, hey. I didn't say I wouldn't, did I?"
Tight-lipped, she shook her head.
"Then it's settled." Terry ducked into the bedroom and opened the
closet. Silk jacket, snakeclone shoes. On the way out, he paused in the
doorway. "Hey. What about Maine? Maybe we could find a place outside
of Portland, nice and convenient to your mom, wouldn't that be nice?"
As he left, he heard Kris beginning to cry again. Pregnant women were
emotional. He understood that.



Their flat was in the heart of Midtown, at the foot of one of the giant
condensor stacks that drew current out of the flux and into the power
grid. The building was wrapped around the tower's anchor pier, and even