"Timothy Zahn - A Coming of Age" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

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A Coming of Age

The man ran a finger down his paper, stopped midway and slid it sideways. "Kellerman... well, he
hasn't checked out and he's not listed on special duty, so he's probably up in his room. You want me
to call up there?"

"Yes, please," Lisa said quickly, before she could lose her nerve.

"Who shall I tell him is here?"

"Lisa Duncan."

The man picked up the phone, consulted the paper again, and punched numbers. "There's a Lisa
Duncan here to see Kellerman," he said a moment later. "...All right. He'll be right down," the man
told Lisa, hanging up the instrument.

Lisa nodded and drifted away from the desk, wondering which direction Daryl would come from.
Her heart was pounding and she could feel her courage draining away with the moisture in her
mouth. What am I going to say to him? she thought frantically. She hadn't yet come up with a good
answer to that when a door on the left side of the lounge opened and Daryl was there. He spotted
Lisa and came toward her.

He'd changed a lot in less than a year, she thought as she put on her best smile and walked forward
to meet him halfway. His face was longer and thinner and showed the black nubs of a struggling
beard on his chin. He was taller, too, and seemed somehow terribly awkward in his movements. Part
of growing up? she wondered, suppressing a shudder.

They stopped simultaneously, about a meter apart. "Hi," Daryl said, his voice sounding as tense and
awkward as the rest of him looked.

"Hi," Lisa said. "I wasn't sure you'd remember me."

He smiled and some of his tension seemed to disappear. "Not likely. You were either the best worker
or worst pest I ever had in a work crew, sometimes both at the same time. Uh... you come by just to
see me?"

Lisa hesitatedтАФand was suddenly aware of a new silence in the lounge. Conversations had ceased,
and she could feel eyes on her from the other teens in the room. Waiting to hear her answer to
Daryl's question? A taste of panic splashed her throat. New rules, new relationshipsтАФand I don't
know any of them. What do I say?

"Could we go for a walk?" she suggested, choosing the easiest way out. "It's pretty stuffy in here."

"Sure," Daryl said, a mixture of relief and disappointment in his voice. He looked past her to the
man at the desk. "I'll be going outside for a while," he said, sounding very grown-up.

"Be in by eight-thirty," the other shrugged.