"The Planners by Kate Wilhelm" - читать интересную книгу автора (1969)

Sonny Driscoll was fourteen. He was five feet nine inches,
weighed one hundred sixty pounds. His male nurse was six
feet two inches and weighed two hundred twenty-seven
pounds. Sonny had broken his mother's arm when be was
twelve; he had broken his father's arm and leg when he was
thirteen. So far the male nurse was intact. Every morning
Mrs. Driscoll lovingly washed and dressed her baby, fed him,
walked him in the yard, spoke happily to him of plans for
the coming months, or sang nursery songs to him. He never
seemed to see her. The male nurse, Johnny, was never farther
than three feet from his charge when he was on duty.
Mrs. Driscoll refused to think of the day when she would
have to turn her child over to an institution. Instead she
placed her faith and hope in Darin.
They arrived at two-fifteen, earlier than he had expected
them, later than they had promised to be there.
"The kid kept taking his clothes off," Johnny said morosely.
The kid was taking them off again in the office. Johnny
started toward him, but Darin shook his head. It didn't mat-
ter. Darin got his blood sample from one of the muscular
arms, shot the injection into the other one. Sonny didn't seem
to notice what he was doing. He never seemed to notice.
Sonny refused to be tested. They got him to the chair and
table, but he sat staring at nothing, ignoring the blocks, the
bright balls, the crayons, the candy. Nothing Darin did or
said had any discernible effect. Finally the time was up. Mrs.
Driscoll and Johnny got him dressed once more and left.
Mrs. Driscoll thanked Darin for helping her boy.
Stu and Darin held class from four to five daily. Kelly
O'Grady had the monkeys tagged and ready for them when
they showed up at the schoolroom. Kelly was very tall, very
slender and red-haired. Stu shivered if she accidentally
brushed him in passing; Darin hoped one day Stu would pull
an Adam on her. She sat primly on her high stool with her
notebook on her knee, unaware of the change that came over
Stu during school hours, or, if aware, uncaring. Darin won-
dered if she was really a Barbie doll fully programmed to
perform laboratory duties, and nothing else.
He thought of the Finishing School for Barbies where long-
legged, high-breasted, stomachless girls went to get shaved
clean, get their toenails painted pink, their nipples removed,
and all body openings sewn shut, except for their mouths,
which curved in perpetual smiles and led nowhere.
The class consisted of six black spider-monkeys who had
not been fed yet. They had to do six tasks in order: I ) pull a
rope; 2) cross the cage and get a stick that was released by
the rope; 3) pull the rope again; 4) get the second stick that
would fit into the first; 5) join the sticks together; 6) using
the lengthened stick, pull a bunch of bananas close enough
to the bars of the cage to reach them and take them inside