"Nancy Kress - Stone Man" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

“Just rest a while. You took a nasty fall.” The blurry old nurse dressed
in some stupid pants with yellow ducks on them stuck a needle in Jared’s
arm and went away.

When he came to again, everything was clearer. A TV on a shelf high
up near the ceiling droned out some news about an earthquake someplace.
An old man in a white coat sat in a chair by Jared’s bed, reading. Jared tried
to sit up, and the man rose and eased him back down. “Just stay quiet a
little longer.”

“Where am I?”

“Perry Street Medical Center. You got hit by a car while
skateboarding, but you have nothing more than two fractured ribs and a
lacerated hand. You’re a very lucky young man.”

“Oh, right. Just lousy with luck.” The words came out correctly; his lips
weren’t nearly as swollen. The tiny room had no windows. How long had he
been in here?

“I’m Dr. Kendall and I need some information. What’s your name,
son?”

“I’m not your son.” Jared lay trying to remember this accident.
Shawn— he’d been skateboarding with Shawn. Shawn had yelled when
Jared got hit. “Shawn?”

“Your name’s Shawn? Shawn What?”

“I’m not Shawn, dumb-ass. He’s my friend, with me. Where’s
Shawn?”

The doctor grimaced. “Some friend. He took off running as soon as
the ambulance arrived. What were you two doing that he didn’t want to get
caught? Never mind, I don’t want to know. But I do need to know your
name.”

“Why?”

“To notify your parents, for one thing.”

“Forget it. She won’t come.”

Something moved behind the doctor’s eyes. He glanced up at the
TV, still showing pictures of an earthquake, then returned to watching Jared
closely. Too closely. The guy was maybe fifty, maybe sixty, with white hair,
but that didn’t mean he couldn’t be a—was he even really a doctor? Jared
said, “Hey, stop staring like that, sicko.”