"James Patrick Kelly - Chemistry" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kelly James Patrick)

identity was a mystery only she could solve: Lily
Brewster, girl detective. Maybe he was still lingering
at the marble threshhold on Hope Street, ten thousand
miles below, or already talking to Ju in the lobby. Most
likely he was watching her, one of the happy faces,
which she now noticed were arranged in a kind of loose
formation. She and Marja stepped down into the welcome
garden's central courtyard and smiling people closed
around them.
She smiled back, even after she realized she was going
to have to square dance.
The bass player had a voice as friendly as a milk
commercial.
"All square your sets around the hall,
Four couples to a set, listen to the call."
He chose "The Texas Star," a simple figure dance which
featured constant switching of partners.
Her first was the short man from the lobby; his green
name badge read Steve. She couldn't understand how he
had gotten to the welcome garden before her. Just as the
dance began, he insisted on shaking her hand. "You're
freezing!" Lily said, clasping his cold hand between
hers.
He stared as if he were memorizing her face. "I just
washed up." When the fiddles started, he led her into a
left-faced turn under his arched right arm. "You know,
Lily, your handshake tells a lot about you."
"Meet your partner, pass on by
Pick up your next one on the fly."
Nick, a pale man with a mustache like a caterpillar
said, "I know you! We met at Justin Metaphor's last
image launch." He stared at Lily's corsage as if he
wanted to eat it. "You came as President Garmezy."
"Not me," she said. "I'm a Neurocrat."
"Smalls back out, bigs go in,
Make that Texas Star again."
"Am I a big or a small?" She crooked her arm into that
of a heavyweight with hair down his neck. Tomasz had
feet as wide as shovels.
"You're a small, my kitten, but plenty big enough for
me." He had a thick Middle European accent; she decided
to leave him for Marja.
"Bigs back out and all circle eight
Circle back to place 'til you get it straight."
The fiddlers stroked their instruments. Was that her
roommate, skipping like a girl scout? Lily was
determined to initiate the next conversation. "This is
probably the silliest damn thing I've ever done," she
said to a red badge named Renfred who smelled of
cigarettes.