"Kristine Kathryn Rusch - Chimera" - читать интересную книгу автора (Rusch Kristine Kathryn)

Gen nodded. She had had to trust all of her doctors after the accident. They
had made a thousand decisions for her when she was unconscious: rebuilding her
legs in ways that would still allow her to teach dance; growing her a new
liver, new kidneys, and injecting stem cells into her heart. She always
thought it ironic that they felt her heart needed repair, but they didn't grow
her a new one. Perhaps if they had done that, she wouldn't have needed the
counseling, wouldn't have had the nightmares, wouldn't have locked herself—

"Gen?" Anna was looking at her. "Are you all right?"

Gen nodded. "Nervous. The last time I cared for something…"

She didn't finish the sentence, but Anna knew. Everyone knew. Gen had been a
celebrity who, when she retired from the stage, had come home to Portland. Her
classes were world-renowned. Parents sent their little darlings to her to
learn the finer points of ballet. Until nine months ago, she had gone on media
interviews all over the world, had guest-instructed everywhere from New York
to Beijing, and all the time she had used her influence to bring money and
prestige to her own favorite city.

So the city was trying to give back now. Only it couldn't. No one could. Dar
was dead.

She shuddered. She still couldn't see her son as anything except a crushed
pile of bones, flesh, and blood, his skull shattered, his eye—

"Gen?" Anna asked again.
"I'm coming," Gen said.

Anna led her through a formal dining room with a picture window overlooking an
enclosed yard. Someone had planted a flowering cherry tree outside so that it
was perfectly centered with the window. Tulips and daffodils bloomed beneath
the cherry tree, a reminder that spring always came early in Oregon.

A movement caught Gen's eye. She turned, saw a furry head duck behind a
three-foot-high Delft vase positioned near the kitchen door.

"Move that, Cedric," Anna said, "and you'll be in trouble again."

There was no answering response from the hiding creature. Anna gave Gen a tiny
smile and pushed open the swinging door.

The kitchen was warm. The bread smell was strong here. A small monkey with a
white head perched on top of one of the vinyl chairs. Another hung from a
swing near the ceiling. A group of mice huddled in an open aquarium, creating
a rug of gray fur. She couldn't tell where one mouse began and another ended.
Three cats sat on top of the refrigerator, and a dog lay on a cedar bed beside
the stove.