"Connie Willis - The Sidon in the Mirror" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

not thinking it all,тАЭ Jewell said to her and stood up. She winced a little as she put her weight on her feet.
тАЬGo borrow a pair of GarnetтАЩs shuffles. IтАЩll nivver be able to git mine on. And go till Sapphire to
doubletap hersilf into the kitchen.тАЭ

She let me help her to the stairs but not up them. тАЬWhen Carnie comes back, you hivv her show you your
room. We work an eight and eight here, and itтАЩs nearly time for the shift. You kin practice till supper if
you want.тАЭ

She went up two steps and stopped. тАЬIf Carnie asks you inny more silly questions, tell her I told her to lit
you alone. I donтАЩt want to hear any more nonsinse about copying and Mirrors. YouтАЩre here to play the
pianoboard.тАЭ
She went on up the stairs, and I went back into the music room. Pearl was still there, sitting in the white
chair, and I didnтАЩt know whether she was included in the instructions to leave me alone, so I sat down on
the hard wooden stool and looked at the pianoboard.

It had a wooden soundboard and bridges, but the strings were plastic instead of metal. I tried a few
chords, and it seemed to have a good sound in spite of the strings. I played a few scales and more
chords and looked at the names on the hardcopies that stood against the music rack. I canтАЩt read music,
of course, but I could see by the titles that I knew most of the songs.

тАЬIt isnтАЩt nonsense, is it?тАЭ Pearl said, тАЬAbout the copying.тАЭ She spoke slowly and without the clipped
accent Jewell and Carnie had.

I turned around on the stool and faced her. тАЬNo,тАЭ I said. тАЬMirrors have to copy. They canтАЩt help
themselves. They donтАЩt even know who theyтАЩre copying. Jewell doesnтАЩt believe me. Do you?тАЭ

тАЬThe worst thing about being blind is not that things are done to you,тАЭ she said, and looked up at me
again with her blind eyes. тАЬItтАЩs that you donтАЩt know whoтАЩs doing them.тАЭ

Carnie came in through the curtained door. тАЬIтАЩm sipposed to show you around,тАЭ she said. тАЬOh, Pearl, I
wish you kidd see him. He has eight fingers on each hand, and heтАЩs really tall. Almost to the ceiling. And
his skin is bright red.тАЭ

тАЬLike a sidonтАЩs,тАЭ Pearl said, looking at me.

Carnie looked down at the blood-red rug she was standing on. тАЬJist like,тАЭ she said, and dragged me
upstairs to show me my room and the clothes I was to wear and tb show me off to the other girls. They
were already dressed for the shift in trailing satin-paper dresses that matched their names. Garnet wore
rose-red chemi-looms in her upswept hair, Emerald an elaborately lit collar.

Carnie got dressed in front of me, stepping out of her robe and into an orange-red dress as if I werenтАЩt
watching. She asked me to fasten her armropes of winking orange, lifting up her red curls so I could tie
the strings of the chemilooms behind her shoulders. I could not decide then if she were trying to seduce
me or get me to copy her or simply to convince me that she was the naive child she pretended to be.

I thought then that whatever she was trying, she had failed. She had succeeded only in convincing me of
what my uncle had already told me. In spite of her youth, her silliness, I could well believe she had been
on Solfatara had known all of it, the pervs, the sots, the worst the happy houses had to offer. I think now
she didnтАЩt mean anything by it except that she wanted to be cruel, that she was simply poking at me as if I
were an animal in a cage.