"James White - UnBirthday Boy" - читать интересную книгу автора (White James)

Un-Birthday Boy
By James White
"Normality" involves comparison to a standard - but how do you judge the
standard? - every morning he tried very hard not to waken into his unhappy
world, but the wall beeper would only get louder until he turned it off to let
his mother know that he was awake and would be out for breakfast as soon as he
had washed and dressed. The voices of the three other children came through
the adjoining wall, louder and more excited than usual because today was
Danal's birthday and there would be a party and presents. He especially hated
waking up on a birthday because those days were the unhappiest of all for him
since he had never had one.
He was the only member of the family with his own room, he thought as he
cleaned himself all over with the special sponge that was supposed to help
take away the smell that they all said came from his body, then he
deliberately looked out of the window while he dressed. Not so long ago he had
needed his mother or one of the other children to help him with his
fastenings, but now he was able to dress and look outside at the same time.
Even his father, while visiting his room to do nasty things to him, had said
that he was showing a change for the better and that it was about time.
But there was never any change in the view from his window, just the same haze
of stars moving past like banks of bright speckled fog and the sun-shadows
moving slowly along the metal framework that held their house to the rim of
the spacestation.
All at once the other room became quiet and empty. He waited for as long as he
could then followed the others into breakfast before his mother could come in
to ask him if he was feeling sick again.
It was the fourteenth birthday party that he had attended, five for each of
the two older children and four for the youngest one who was his favorite,
although there might have been others that he had been too young to remember.
They always began at breakfast time so that his father could join in and
distribute the presents before dressing for work. Be cause it took so long to
get into and out of a spacesuit and to check every thing, the children would
not see him again until it was nearly bedtime. His father spent the last hour
of the day playing with the children in their rooms, but some of the things he
did to him when they were alone together were not nice so that he would have
been pleased not to have a lather at all.
"Since this is another birthday," said his father, smiling at everyone in
turn, "we have again been given permission to let you spend today playing in
the Center. Your mother will stay with you until I finish for the day and we
come back for another party. This time the area of wall netting has been
extended and the metal projections padded so that there is no risk of you
injuring yourselves. But don't get overexcited or jump off too fast be cause a
collision at speed with the net supports or each other will hurt and would
certainly spoil the rest of the birthday for you. And if someone was to be
seriously injured you might not be allowed to play in the Center again. So be
very careful, all of you."
Why, he thought, does he always look at me when he says things like that?
"And now," his father went on, "the presents..."
Danal, the birthday boy, was given his present first. It was a large box
wrapped in used computer paper, and while he was opening it his younger