"Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Objects of Desire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hoffman Nina Kiriki)

change into my T-shirt. I went into the closet to hang up my clothes, though, and the instant I was out of
her sight she made loud beeping/clicking noises that sounded sort of like a burglar alarm. I ducked back
into the room and stared at her.
"Che, che," she scolded, reaching one hand out to me and frowning with her eyebrows. She looked
like the ruler of the world.
Did all skewlis act like this? I wished I had documentation. Or that I could go downstairs and log on
and look for infor-mation. But I didn't want to walk in on Mom and Grandma fighting.
I could ask people at school tomorrow.
I slid under the covers and waved the light out. A second later it lit again. Vespa held her hand out
to it. She stared at the light for a moment, then looked at me. Her eyes looked spooky with the light
coming from the side; small green moons floated in their centers.
Then she bounded up the bed until she was on the pillow next to my head. She held up her arm and
waved the "lights-out" signal, and my room darkened.
I listened to her breathing, smelled her lemon-and-fresh-bread scent. I felt keyed up. I couldn't
remember how smart my friends' skewlis had been. Could a skewlis figure out com-plicated
cause-and-effect from just seeing it once? Maybe Vespa had learned that light switch trick somewhere
else.
She purred.
I'd heard skewlis make all kinds of noises. I'd never heard one purr before. Before I could consider
that, though, I got sleepy. The purring sounded so fine and reassuring. Like, "All's right with the world."


I opened my eyes the next morning and felt Vespa's hands on my forehead. She let go a second later, so
I wondered if I had dreamed it.
When I went into the closet to get my school clothes, she followed me in. She clasped her arms and
legs around my leg, scolding at me. I wondered if I was going to like close atten-tion in such big doses.
Vespa shared my breakfast bars with me, and took a sip of juice concentrate.
What was I going to do about the litter box situation at school? Maybe somebody would explain it
to me.
In the halls before school started, skewlis were still every-where. My friend Pati rushed up to me
and complimented me on Vespa. I looked at her baby-blue-eyed, pink-and-green-checked skewlis
(named Ramtha) and realized I liked Vespa's coloring much better. Not that I said anything about it.
Other friends gathered around and stared at Vespa, checked her brand, nodded to me as if I'd managed
to squeak into their club.
I noticed five or six kids in the hall with black buttons big as hands on their jackets. Colored letters,
kana, and Sanskrit flashed across the buttons, not making words, just pulling at my eyes.
"Oooo," said Pati, and raced off to inspect one of the but-tons.
I noticed the kids with buttons didn't have skewlis. Well. The Next Hot Thing is here, I thought.
Vespa patted my forehead. I didn't remember other skewlis doing that to anybody.
But it was strange. The WANT chip had switched on in my brain as soon as Pati ran away to look
at buttons, even though I thought I had killed that chip by getting Vespa. I mean, I really thought I had
killed that damned chip. What could be better than Vespa?
Stupid black buttons that didn't even make words?
I saw Rico smile as two girls asked him about his flashing button.
Vespa patted my forehead.
And the WANT chip switched off.
It was just school, and I hadn't done all my homework yet because I had celebrated my birthday by
not making myself do the subjects I hated. I ignored the bright new buttons and plowed past everybody
to get to study hall.