"Ian Watson - The FireWorm" - читать интересную книгу автора (Watson Ian)

Jack smiled enigmatically. тАЬLifeтАЩs hard for kids these days.тАЭ

тАЬSally,тАЭ murmured Walt, тАЬis it true that Toby Cook and Roxanne have AIDS?тАЭ (Who were they?)

тАЬIтАЩm afraid so. Yes. The virus must have been dormant for years.тАЭ

тАЬWhat about their kids?тАЭ
тАЬTheyтАЩre being given tests. It isnтАЩt as though Toby and Roxanne slept around in recent years. God, where
will it all end?тАЭ

To my way of thinking there were two sorts of Tynesiders. Those who left the flat, cold, downbeat place
as soon as possible and avoided going back unless forced. And those who went away briefly once then
hurried home with their tails between their legs, telling friends, тАЬWey, man, itтАЩs treacherous doon south.тАЭ

I recalled one bright brisk SummerтАЩs morning down on the seafront with the slightest of blue swells
hissing some foam on to the sands. A man muffled in overcoats had warned, тАЬWatchoot, itтАЩs treacherous
on the beach.тАЭ

Ambitions were drenched with cold water. тАЬYouтАЩre flyinтАЩ too high!тАЭ Odd ideas caused the lugubrious
comment, тАЬYeтАЩll bring aboot the downfall oтАЩ nations!тАЭ

(The shipping clerk was my patient, Derek Davies, sacked for dipping into the petty cash and later
prosecuted for fiddling the Social Security. His past lives included being a highwayman, who was hung
and gibbeted, and a teenage cutpurse who got cut up in turn. A pattern of shabby-romantic unsuccessful
crimes.)

I didnтАЩt quite place myself in the second category of Geordies, but IтАЩd certainly gone to the local college
instead of braving strange pastures.

(JACK: тАЬWhat doyou know about horrors, John old son?тАЭ)

And here I was, still living in Newcastle, unmarried, with my elderly widowed mother sharing the house.
True, IтАЩd achieved a certain modest notoriety thanks to PLT. But wasnтАЩt my own life passing prematurely
by? Apart from practicing unconventional therapy, why had I notdared ? To marry, really to believe in
reincarnation, emigrate to California, become a popular guru? Whatever. Such dreams were treacherous.
IтАЩd be flying too high. IтАЩd bring about the downfall of nations. Look at the mental and social mess which
my patients got themselves into! They needed a stable, unhectic personality to face them in the consulting
room.

Now of course, with AIDS, the whole world was becoming тАж

(To remind me what I looked like тАФ in case I needed to look the same again.)

(Helen Daggett, under hypnosis, had related an extremely pious life as a nun in medieval France.)

тАж was becoming ever more constrained and scared. To dare was тАФ treacherous. Treachery stalked
the streets, since if you had an accident and needed blood, well! Treachery lay in bed with you, withering
you. Though to be sure, I dared let Jack rip writing horror stories!