"Walter Jon Williams - Surfacing (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Walter John)


"Listen to this," Philana said. "It's fascinating. A cow teaching her calf about life." She touched the recorder, and muttering filled the air. Anthony had difficulty understanding: the cow's idiom was complex, and bore none of the poetic repetition that made the males' language easier to follow. Finally he shook his head.


"Go ahead and turn it off," he said. "I'm picking up only one phrase in five. I can't follow it."


Philana seemed startled. "Oh. I'm sorry. I thoughtЧ"


Anthony twisted uncomfortably in his seat. "I don't know every goddamn thing about whales," he said.


The recorder fell silent. Wind rattled the canvas awning over the flybridge. Savage discontent settled into Anthony's mind. Suddenly he needed to get rid of this woman, get her off his boat and head to sea right now, away from all the things on land that could trip him up.


He thought of his father upside-down in the smokehouse. Not moving, arms dangling.


He should apologize, he realized. We are, he thought, in a condition of permanent apology.


"I'm sorry," he said. "I'm just ... not used to dealing with people."


"Sometimes I wonder," she said. "I'm only twenty-one, and . . ."


"Yes?" Blurted suddenly, the tequila talking. Anthony felt disgust at his own awkwardness.


Philana looked at the planks. "Yes. Truly. I'm twenty-one, and sometimes people get impatient with me for reasons I don't understand."


Anthony's voice was quiet. "I'm twenty-six."


Philana was surprised. "But. I thought." She thought for a long moment. "It seems I've been reading your papers for . . ."


"I was first published at twenty," he said. "The finback article."


Philana shook her head. "I'd never have guessed. Particularly after what I saw in your new XR paper."


, SURFACING / 13


Anthony's reaction was instant."You saw,that?" Another spasm of disgust touched him. Tequila burned in his veins. His stomach turned over. For some reason his arms were trembling.