"Kathleen Ann Goonan - The Bride of Elvis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goose Mother)

you go. So what if He's back? They don't need you there. I do. Oh God, honey, sweetheart, I do."
Her eyes filled with tears when she heard the passion in his voice, which matched hers in strength and depth.
Then Elvis, live, she knew it, launched into a song she'd never heard before. It must be patched through from the
ship. The call. What they'd always been waiting for.
It was like she was hearing two things when she listened, the human words, and beneath them, ancient, powerful
directions.

The spark of the unknown past surged through her. Mana, pure white as if distilled from starlight. Long, incredibly
long life; planets beyond her ken, a homeland she couldn't even imagine, but which pulled at every cell.
Roy never looked frightened, no, not for an instant, as he reached back to turn off the TV, almost like he knew it all
and what was going to happen.
"I won't let you go," he said. He held her even more closely, and she knew it was true. She drew back a little and just
looked at him, with Elvis' lovely voice in her ears, and he started to gasp. He let go of her. His hands went to his throat,
and he fell to the floor, writhing and choking.
Darlene reached down and picked up the keys he'd dropped, then stepped over him.
Elvis stopped singing as she walked out the door. She walked across the gravel lot, climbed into the truck, and
heard Zinnea scream.
"Sorry, honey," she said, as she turned the ignition key and slammed the truck into reverse, even though she knew
he couldn't hear her. But he'd be breathing again now. She'd only meant to make him let go of her. As she sped down
the driveway, toward Him, mana, her kiddies, the ship, everything, she whispered, blinking back tears, "It never would
have worked. It never would have worked anyway, Roy, sweetie. Never."


-end-


ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kathleen Ann Goonan's first SF novel, Queen City Jazz, was published in 1995 bearing endorsements from William
Gibson and Lucius Shepard, and was a widely praised New York Times Notable Book. Her second novel, The Bones of
Time, appeared in 1996, also to widespread acclaim, and late in 1997 the sequel to her first novel, Mississippi Blues, will
appear. She is one of the bright new stars of the mid-1990s. And for the last several years she has been publishing
short fiction of high quality in Interzone, Asimov's, and Omni. She has a droll wit and a complicated approach to
storytelling that usually includes loads of SF details, shows a fascination with history and popular culture, and has
lots of things happening. "The Bride of Elvis" first appeared in SF Age. This story is another tonic in the face of films
of alien invasion and the anti-science of television shows such as The X-Files. Elvis, you see, was more than just King
of rock and roll....