"Richard Wadholm - Orange Groves Out to the Horizon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wadholm Richard)

ORANGE GROVES OUT TO THE HORIZON
RICHARD WADHOLM


THE WAY THEY WORK IT, the prison calls ahead of time. This robot voice says,
тАЬYou are about to receive a call from an inmate of the federal prison
system.тАЭ They ask if you are willing to accept the call, and thatтАЩs a question
you want to think about.
Ken called while I was crawling around behind our network server,
testing ports on a flaky router.
I knew he would call me. All his other friends had invested their futures
in wives and children, and could not be imposed upon. Who else did we
have but each other?
I tried to picture him the way he would be now, with a little gravity to
the eyelids. An aging marsupial, anxious and friendly. But all I could see
was the way he was in the tenth grade. His earnest sarcasm. Long hair,
washed furiously, the way boys do - without conditioner, so that it hung
straight and dry as late-summer grass.
In my mind, the greetings come and goтАФHow are you holding up? No,
too brave. Are they treating you right? Right according to whom?
And before I could settle on what to say, he was there, singing Time is
on My Side. IтАЩm sure he thought that was hilarious.
тАЬJesus youтАЩre stupid sometimes,тАЭ I said.
тАЬYou sound like my last performance review at work.тАЭ He laughedтАФ
Phoo phoo phoo, like he was laughing around a cigarette.
тАЬIs that the way they talked to you at work?тАЭ
тАЬCome on, man. Like it matters now.тАЭ
тАЬLook, I can call you stupid. IтАЩm your friend. I donтАЩt like it your work
called you stupid.тАЭ


Polyphony 6 279
RICHARD WADHOLM


тАЬReliant Pharmaceuticals, those fucks. They wouldnтАЩt know E. coli from
mi culo, you know what IтАЩm saying, Hoss?тАЭ
Yet they knew the recipe for ricin when they found it on his computer.
They recognized its traces in his one-cup coffee maker. How stupid could
they be? A bad thought came to me, like a craving. It gnawed at me,
wouldnтАЩt leave me alone. тАЬYou sure you had nothing, you knowтАФpersonal
in mind for anybody.тАЭ
тАЬYou mean, was I going to poison their lame asses? You know I donтАЩt
believe in that revenge shit. I wasnтАЩt going to hurt anybody.тАЭ
тАЬRicin. The hell were you thinking, anyway?тАЭ
тАЬGophers. You know.тАЭ
I could tell you what happened. Ken had seen the recipe on a web site
somewhere. He wanted to know if it worked. Does that sound stupid? Not
if youтАЩre Ken Rafael, who had been a child prodigy in chemistry, (ask any
kid in our high school, theyтАЩll tell you.) who had taken a low level job at