"Connie Willis - Even The Queen" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

"She said every woman had periods," Mother said. "So I asked her, " 'Even the Queen of England?' And
she said, 'Even the Queen.'"
"Really?" Twidge said. "But she's so old!"
"She isn't having it now," the docent said irritatedly. "I told you, menopause occurs at age fifty-five."
"And then you have hot flashes," Karen said, "and osteoporosis and so much hair on your upper lip you
look like Mark Twain."
"Who's--" Twidge said.
"You are simply reiterating negative male propaganda," the docent interrupted, looking very red in the
face.
"You know what I've always wondered?" Karen said, leaning conspiratorially close to Mother. "If
Maggie Thatcher's menopause was responsible for the Falklands War."
"Who's Maggie Thatcher?" Twidge said.
The docent, who was now as red in the face as her scarf, stood up. "It is clear there is no point in trying
to talk to you. You've all been completely brainwashed by the male patriarchy." She began grabbing up
her folders. "You're blind, all of you! You don't even see that you're victims of a male conspiracy to
deprive you of your biological identity, of your very womanhood. The Liberation wasn't a liberation at
all. It was only another kind of slavery!"
"Even if that were true," I said, "even if it had been a conspiracy to bring us under male domination, it
would have been worth it."
"She's right, you know," Karen said to Mother. "Traci's absolutely right. There are some things worth

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giving up anything for, even your freedom, and getting rid of your period is definitely one of them."
"Victims!" the docent shouted. "You've been stripped of your femininity, and you don't even care!" She
stomped out, destroying several squash and a row of gladiolas in the process.
"You know what I hated most before the Liberation?" Karen said, pouring the last of the dandelion wine
into her glass. "Sanitary belts."
"And those cardboard tampon applicators," Mother said.
"I'm never going to join the Cyclists," Twidge said.
"Good," I said.
"Can I have dessert?"
I called the waitress over, and Twidge ordered sugared violets. "Anyone else want dessert?" I asked.
"Or more primrose wine?"
"I think it's wonderful the way you're trying to help your sister," Bysshe said, leaning close to Viola.
"And those Modess ads," Mother said. "You remember, with those glamorous women in satin brocade
evening dresses and long white gloves, and below the picture was written, 'Modess, because...' I thought
Modess was a perfume."
Karen giggled. "I thought it was a brand of champagne!"
"I don't think we'd better have any more wine," I said.
###
The phone started singing the minute I got to my chambers the next morning, the universal ring.
"Karen went back to Iraq, didn't she?" I asked Bysshe.
"Yeah," he said. "Viola said there was some snag over whether to put Disneyland on the West Bank or
not."
"When did Viola call?"
Bysshe looked sheepish. "I had breakfast with her and Twidge this morning."
"Oh." I picked up the phone. "It's probably Mother with a plan to kidnap Perdita. Hello?"
"This is Evangeline, Perdita's docent," the voice on the phone said. "I hope you're happy. You've