"Alastair Reynolds - Signal to Noise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reynolds Alastair)

We both agreed it was the right thing to do. If the tables were turned, you
wouldn’t have hesitated.”

“Maybe not.”

“I know you, Mick. Maybe better than you know yourself. You’d have
done all that you could, and more.”

“I just want you to know… I’m not taking any of this lightly. Not you
having to see me, like this… not what he has to go through while I’m
around.”

“He said to tell you there are worse ways to spend a week.”

Mick tried to smile. He felt the muscles of his face move, but without a
mirror there was no way to judge the outcome. The moment stretched. A
football splashed into the lake and began to drift away from the edge. He
heard a little boy start crying.

“Your hair looks different,” Mick said.

“You don’t like it.”

“No, I do. It really suits you. Did you have that done after… oh, wait. I
see. You were on your way to the salon.”

He could see the scratch on her face where she’d grazed it on the
curb, when the car knocked her down. She hadn’t even needed stitches. In
a week it would hardly show at all.

“I can’t begin to imagine what it’s been like for you,” Andrea said. “I
can’t imagine what this is like for you.”
 “It helps.”

“You don’t sound convinced.”

“I want it to help. I think it’s going to. It’s just that right now it feels like
I’ve made the worst mistake of my life.”

Andrea held up the coffee holder. “Do you fancy one? It’s my treat.”

Andrea was a solicitor. She worked for a small legal firm located in
modern offices near the park. There was a Starbucks near her office
building. “They don’t know me there, do they.”

“Not unless you’ve been moonlighting. Come on. I hate to say it, but
you could use some practice walking.”

“As long as you won’t laugh.”