"Sheri S. Tepper - After Long Silence" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

and quelled the voice sternly, annoyed with himself. Her hysteria was real. She had been genuinely upset
by the drama. Sympathy was called for rather than his increasingly habitual impatience. "Hey, forget it. All
past history and long gone. Now that you're pregnant, you need more cheerful influences." With a
flourish, he produced his surprise. "Here, something I picked up."

"Oh, Tasmin!" She slipped the ribbon to one side and tore at the paper, pulling the stuffed toy from its
wrappings and hugging the gray-green plush of the wide-eyed little animal. "It's so cunning. Look at that.
A viggy baby. I love it. Thank you." She stroked the feathery antennae, planting a kiss on the green
velour nose.

He suppressed the happy comments he had been about to make. The toy had been intended for the
baby, a symbol of expectation. He should have said something to that effect before she opened it. Or
perhaps not. She was more pleased with it than a baby would be.

He tried with another gift. "Except for a preceptor trip next month, I've told the Master General I won't
be available for any extended duty until after the baby comes. How about that?"

"I wish it was already next month," she went on with her own thoughts, only half hearing him.

"Why? What's next month?"

"Lim Terr├йe is coming to do a concert. Less than three weeks from now. I really want to hear that тАж "

Lim Terr├йe.

He heard the name, then chose not to hear it. Not to have heard it.

Instead, he found himself examining Celcy's smooth lineless face, staring at her full lips, her wide bright
eyes, totally unchanged by their five years of marriage. She was so tiny, he chanted to himself in his
private ritual, so tiny, like a doll. Her skin was as smooth as satin. When they made love, he could cup
each of her buttocks in one of his hands, a silken mound. When they made love his world came apart in
wonderful fire. She was his own sweet girl.

Lim Terr├йe.

She was pregnant now. An accident. The doctor had told them she couldn't possibly get pregnant unless
she took the hormones he gave her, but she wouldn't take the drug. Could not, she said. It made her
sick. Impossible that she could be pregnant, and yet she was. "Sometimes we're wrong," the doctor had
said. "Sometimes these things happen." A miracle.

Tasmin was amazed at his own joy, astonished at his salesmanship in convincing her it would be fun to
have a child of their own. Too soon for a test yet, but he hoped for a son. Celcy wouldn't mind his caring
for a boy, but she would probably hate sharing him with a little girl. "Fear sharing him," he told himself,
remembering his mother's words. "Not hate, fear."

He coughed, almost choking. He couldn't just go on staring at his wife and ignoring what she had said.
He had to respond. "When did you hear he was coming?"

"There are big posters down at the Center.'Lim Terr├йe. Jubal's entertainment idol. Straight from his
triumphant tour of the Deepsoil Coast.' I got his most recent cube and it's wonderful. I don't know