"Nancy Kress - Nano Comes to Clifford Falls" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

NANO COMES TO CLIFFORD FALLS by NANCY KRESS
Nancy Kress is the author of twenty-three books. Her work has been translated
into fourteen languages, including--to the author's bemusement--Klingon. Nancy
is currently working on a medical thriller. Her last story for us, "My Mother,
Dancing" (June 2004) is a current finalist for the Nebula Award.

I was weeding the garden when nanotech came to my town. The city got it a month earlier, but I haven't
been to the city since last year. Some of my neighbors went--Angie Myers and Emma Karlson and that
widow, Mrs. Blanston, from church. They brought back souvenirs, things made in the nanomachine, and
the scarf Angie showed me was really cute. But with three little kids, I don't get out much.

That day was hot, with the July sun hanging overhead like it wasn't ever going to move. Bob McPhee
from next door stuck his head over the fence. His Rottweiler snarled through the chain links. I don't like
that dog, and Kimee, my middle one, is afraid of it.

"Hey, Carol, don't you know you don't have to do that no more?" Bob said. "The nanomachinery will
make you all the tomatoes and peas you want."

"Hey, Bob," I said. I went on weeding, swiping at the sweat on my forehead with the back of my hand.
Jackie watched me from the shade of the garage. I'd laid him on a blanket dressed in just his diaper and
he was having a fine time kicking away and then stopping to eat his toes.

"They're giving Clifford Falls four of 'em," Bob said. Since he retired from the fire department, he don't
have enough to do all day. "I saw it on TV. The mayor's getting 'em installed in the town hall."

"That's good," I said, to say something. I could hear Will and Kimee inside the kitchen, fighting over
some toy.

"Mayor'll run the machinery. One for food, one for clothing, the other two he's taking requests. I already
put in mine, for a sports car."

That got my attention. "A car? A whole car?"

"Sure, why not? Nano can make anything. The town is starting with one request from each person, first
come first served. Then after that ... I dunno. I guess Mayor Johnson'll work it out. Hey, gorgeous, stop
that weeding and come have a beer with me. Pretty gal like you shouldn't be getting all hot and sweaty at
weeding."

He leered at me, but he don't mean anything by it. At least, I don't think he does. Bob's over fifty but still
looks pretty good, and he knows it, but he also knows I'm not that kind. Jack might've took off two
months ago, but I don't need anyone like Bob, a married man, for temporary fun and games.

"I like the taste of home-grown tomatoes," I tell him. "Ones at the Safeway taste like wallpaper."

"But nano won't make tomatoes that taste processed," he says in that way that men like to correct
women. "That machinery will make the best tomatoes this town ever tasted."

"Well, I hope you're right." Then Will and Kimee spilled their fight out through the screen door into the
back yard, and Jackie started whimpering on his blanket, and I didn't have no time for any
nanomachinery.