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

By the time the call comes, she has put the test out of her mind and is surprised to hear Bryan's voice. He
knows that personal calls are forbidden, so he speaks fast:

“The results are in. Meet you at our special place at one."
 “How bad are they?” she asks, voice breathless. She hasn't realized until now how shallowly she's been
breathing, how much she has invested in this single moment, in knowing what the future will bring.

But he does not answer her. In deference to her work—and how much they need her paycheck—he has
already hung up.

She takes another deep breath, feels the air go in and out of her lungs. Only once before has she been
this conscious of her body, and that was when the lab tech pricked her finger—painless, the woman had
promised, but a prick was a prick, sharp and sudden and a little bit invasive. Jess watched the blood
well, a dark, rich, red, and she wondered what secrets it would reveal.

Now she'll know.

Bryan already knows.

And he is going to make her wait two hours before he tells.

****

Their place is Washington Square Park. She used to work in the neighborhood, and went there for lunch,
sometimes a dog or a knish from a vendor, sometimes a sandwich bought a nearby deli, sometimes a
banana brought from home. What she ate then wasn't important, it was the brief moment outdoors, even
if it meant sitting in a park more concrete than grass with trees that were spindly because of the dirt in the
air.

Bryan worked nearby too, and they sometimes sat on the same bench. They never talked, not until some
tourist—coincidentally from Iowa, like they both were—couldn't figure out how to use her new camera
and desperately wanted a picture to e-mail to her uncle Syd.

They still laugh about that. Technology, Bryan says, is what brought us together.

Technology, Jess always adds, that most people don't understand.

Now they are facing another side of technology. One she is sure will tell her if the life she wants is
something she can have.

She almost splurges and takes a cab, but at the last moment, she remembers how many more expenses
there could be. The subway is old. It creaks and groans and her friend Joan swears it'll one day just fall
apart, but it gets Jess to the park with time to spare.

She does not buy lunch. She knows she will not be able to eat. She sits on their bench and waits for
Bryan who is uncharacteristically late.

He has chosen this place for its symmetry. Symmetry is important to Bryan. It is, in his mind, an element
of perfection. Only she cannot guess exactly what the symmetry is.