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

are allowed. A good joke, and Jack had done it in spite of what he had seen on Solfatara, to show
Jewell he didnтАЩt think I was a sidon, that he would wait to see what I would do before he judged me.

And that would have been too late. What would have happened when I lit the cigar? Would the house
have gone up in a ball of flame, or all of St. Pierre? The hydrogen-oxygen ratio had been high enough in
the upper atmosphere that we had had to shut off the engines above a kilometer and spiral in, and here
the fans were pumping in even more oxygen. Half of Paylay might have gone up.

I knew how it had happened. Jewell had interrupted the downpilot before he could ask about sparkers,
and now, because her feet had hurt, there was a live sparker in her house. And she had just convinced
Jack I was not dangerous.

I had stopped playing, sitting there staring blindly at the keyboard, the unlit cigar clamped so hard
between my teeth I had nearly bitten it through. The men were still shouting out the names of songs, but
Jewell stepped between them and me and put a hardcopy on the music rack. тАЬNo more riquists,тАЭ she
said. тАЬPearl is going to sing for you.тАЭ

Pearl stood up and walked unassisted from her white chair to the pianoboard. She stopped no more than
an inch from me and put her hand down certainly on the end of the keyboard. I looked at the music. It
showed a line of notes before her part began, but I did not know that version, only the song that Kovich
had known, and that began on the first note of the verse. I could not nod at her, and she could not see
my hands on the keys.

тАЬI donтАЩt know the introduction,тАЭ I said. тАЬJust the verse. What should I do?тАЭ

She bent down to me. тАЬPut your hand on mine when you are ready to begin, and I will count three,тАЭ she
said, and straightened again, leaving her hand where it was. I looked down at her hand. Carnie had told
her about my hands, and if I touched her lightly, with only the middle fingers, she might not even be able
to tell it from a humanтАЩs touch. I wanted more than anything not to frighten her. I did not think I could
bear it if she flinched away from me.

Now I think it would have been better if she had, that I could have stood it better than this, sitting here
with her head on my lap, waiting. If she had flinched, Jack would have seen her. He would have seen her
draw away from me, and that would have been enough for him to grab me by the dog collar and throw
me out the door, kick me down the wooden steps so hard that the sparker bounced out, leave me to
cook in the furnace of Paylay.

тАЬNow whit did you do thit for?тАЭ Jewell would have said. тАЬHe dinтАЩt do innything but tich her hand.тАЭ

тАЬAnd heтАЩll nivver do innything ilse to her either,тАЭ he would have said, and handed Jewell the sparker. And
I would never have been able to do anything else to her.

But she did not flinch. She took a light breath that took no longer than it did for my hand to return to the
keys and hit the first note on the count of three, and we began together. I did not do any trills, any octave
stretches. Her voice was sweet and thready and true. She didnтАЩt need me.

The men applauded after PearlтАЩs song and started calling out the names of other songs. Some I didnтАЩt
know, and I wondered how I could explain that to them, but Jewell said, тАЬNow, now, boys. LetтАЩs not
use up our pianoboard player in one shift. Lit him go to bid. HeтАЩll be here next shift. Who wants a game
of katmai?тАЭ She reached over and pulled the cover down over the keyboard. тАЬUse the front stairs,тАЭ she