"Robert A. Heinlein - Space Family Stone" - читать интересную книгу автора (Heinlein Robert A)

you got? A repair dock. Or a stamping mill. And who Ceres?’
‘So you aren’t an engineer. You’re merely a man who knows engineering.’
‘What about yourself? You didn’t stick with it.’
‘No,’ she admitted, ‘but my reasons were different. I saw three big, hairy,
male men promoted over my head and not one of them could do a partial
integration without a pencil. Presently I figured out that the Atomic Energy
Commission had a bias on the subject of women no matter what the civil
service rules said. So I took a job dealing blackjack. Luna City didn’t offer
much choice in those days - and I had you to support.’
The argument seemed about to die out; Castor judged it was time to mix it up
again. ‘Hazel, do you really think we should get a Hanshaw? I’m not sure we
can afford it.’
‘Well, now, you really need a third crewnaan for a -‘
‘Do you want to buy in?’
‘Mr Stone interrupted. ‘Hazel, I will not stand by and let you ecourage this. I’m
putting my foot down.’
‘You look silly standing there on one foot. Don’t try to bring me up, Roger. At
ninety-five my habits are fairly well set.’
‘Ninety-five indeed! Last week you were eighty-five.’
‘It’s been a hard week. Back to our muttons - why don’t you buy in with them?
You could go along and keep them out of trouble.’
‘What? Me?’ Mr Stone took a deep breath. ‘(A) a marine guard couldn’t keep
these two junior-model Napoleons out of trouble. I know; Ive tried. (B) I do
not like a Hanshaw; they are fuel hogs. (C) l have to turn out three episodes
a week of The Scourge of the Spaceways - including one which must be
taped tonight, if this family will ever quiet down!’
‘Roger,’ his mother answered’ ‘trouble in this family is like water for fish. And
nobody asked you to buy a Hanshaw, As to your third point’ give me a blank
spool and I’ll dictate the next three episodes tonight while I’m brushing my
hair.’ Hazel’s hair was still thick and quite red. So far, no one had caught her
dyeing it. ‘It’s about time you broke that contract anyway; you’ve won your
bet.’


12
Her son winced. Two years before be had let himself be trapped into a bet
that he could write better stuff than was being channeled up from Earth - and
had gotten himself caught in a quicksand of fat checks and options. ‘I can’t
afford to quit’ he said feebly.
‘What good is money if you don’t have time to spend it? Give me that spool
and the box’
‘You can’t write it.’
‘Want to bet?’
Her son backed down; no one yet had won a bet with Hazel.
‘That’s beside the point I’m a family man; I’ve got Edith and Buster and
Meade to think about, too.’
Meade turned her head again. ‘If you’re thinking about me, Daddy, I’d like to
go. Why, I’ve never been any place - except that one trip to Venus and twice
to New York.’
‘Hold still. Meade,’ Dr Stone said quietly. She went on to her husband, ‘You