"Chalker, Jack L - G.o.d. Inc. 2 - The Shadow Dancers" - читать интересную книгу автора (Chalker Jack L)

somebody else, somebody completely different, somebody with a past and memories
only of bein' property on that evil world. Somebody so ignorant they didn't even
know it was hell they was in.
Preparation and trainin' was over. The mission was underway.

4.
You Can't Think of Everything


I ain't too clear on what came next. Oh, sure, I remember it, but not like it
was real. More like a dream, you know? That's 'cause I was her, and she didn't
think about much. It's only when I think back on it with what I know as myself
that I can put it into any kinda picture that makes sense.
I woke up in a kinda dingy, smelly dormitory. It didn't have much in the way of
lights and none in the way of privacy, but it had like twenty naked girls
sleepin' on cots. Down at the end there was a long basin and a row of open
toilets. It looked and felt perfectly normal. This was my tribe and these were
my sisters. The hard part for even me to get into now is that I had no sense of
personal identity, of self, at all. I had a name all right-Beth it was-but there
was no sense of bein' a particular person named Beth.
We got up, took our shits in turn, walked under these open showers and wiped
each other with lard soap, dried each other off with towels, and combed each
other's hair with carved wood combs. The showers were cold and while there was a
lot of noise there wasn't much said. We could talk, all right, in a kind of
strict pidgin southern that made a lot of uses out of few words, but there
wasn't no need.
Then we went out, naked, on a cool gray day, and we did exercises and ran around
this dirt track like schoolgirls at play. Some white folks watched us from off a
ways but we didn't pay 'em no mind. Then we all went into this other building
where there was tables and benches on which were dishes and let the sisters
who'd gotten up early serve us. I can't tell you what the food was; you drank
this thick, real sweet drink and you ate these different kinds of cakes. Lookin'
back I figure it was some kinda cheap health food, full of vitamins and minerals
and
Then we all pitched in to clean up, makin' that place not just clean but
spotless. Then it was back to the exercises and the track again, only this time
it was more playful and less organized. All this with no boss, no supervisor,
not even any orders.
This day would be different, though. In late morning, a black truck pulled up at
the big farmhouse off in the distance and after a while two black-clad storm
troopers armed with pistols came over to us and we stopped and waited, curious
but not afraid. White folks were afraid of these kind of men; to us they were
just more white folks. With them was Jenner, one of the supervisors at the farm.
He pointed, then drawled out, "All right, you girls! Listen up, now! I'm gonna
call out three names. If you hear your name, then you go in and you shower and
then you come back out to us. The rest of you just keep on with whatever you was
doing."
I was just as shocked and scared when they called Beth as if I were really
Beth-which I thought I was. Still, I went with Daisy and Lavinia and took the
shower and then reported back. We didn't say nothin' to each other-we was all