"R. Garcia y Robertson - The Good Ship Lollypop" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robertson R Garcia Y)

THE GOOD SHIP LOLLYPOP
by R. Garcia y Robertson

Danger and slavery await a teenage girl if she can’t outwit the
Boogie man who haunts...

****

Boogie Man

Shirlee first saw the Boogie man when she was seven. Mom was out
cold, so Shirlee disabled the apartment alarm, then unlocked the kitchen
disposal port. Mom’s apartment had been a rec-room on a dorm deck, and
the disposal easily accommodated a skillful child.

Crawling through the tubes, Shirlee emerged in what had been a
cafeteria, when the Monrovia was a colony ship in deep space. Kids called
it the Hall of Tables. Bare, chairless tables dominated the empty space, all
bolted to one wall, because spin gravity had turned the ancient mess deck
into a bulkhead.

She counted doors in the floor, until she came to Jill’s, then thumbed
the lock. Folks inside laughed to see her descend the ladder.

“For Elviz’ sake, who’s this?”

“Look, a curly blond Munchkin.”

“Jill, your friend’s here.”

“Which friend?”

“Shirlee.”

Lomax leaped on her, licking her ear.

Jill was eight, and lived in what had been a bosun’s suite with her
extended family, and a huge warm wolf-dog named Lomax. After a long fun
play lasting past lights-out, Jill and Lomax walked her back to the disposal.

As Shirlee left, Jill’s mother gave her a pair of little blue pep pills.
“These are for Mom. So don’t swallow them.”

“Of course.” Adults had such weird notions.
 She gave Jill’s mother a good-bye hug, keeping a careful hold on the
pills.

Lights had dimmed down to nighttime levels, but Shirlee could still
see. At the entrance to the Hall of Tables, Lomax growled.