"John Varley - Blue Champagne" - читать интересную книгу автора (Varley John)

She was going to be quite beautiful. He could see it clearly in her face. As for the body... who could
tell?

Not that he really gave a damn.

She was dressed in a little of this and a little of that, worn here and there without much regard for his
concepts of modesty. Many of the children wore nothing. It had been something of a shock when he
arrived. Now he was almost used to it, but he still thought it incautious on the part of her parents.
Did they really think the world was that safe, to let an eleven-year-old girl go practically naked in a
public place?

He sat there listening to her prattle about her friends—the ones she hated and the one or two she
simply adored—with only part of his attention.

He inserted um's and uh-huh's in the right places.

She was cute, there was no denying it. She seemed as sweet as a child that age ever gets, which can
be very sweet and as poisonous as a rattlesnake, almost at the same moment. She had the capacity to
be warm, but it was on the surface. Underneath, she cared mostly about herself. Her loyalty would
be a transitory thing, bestowed easily, just as easily forgotten.

And why not? She was young. It was perfectly healthy for her to be that way.

But did he dare try to touch her?

It was crazy. It was as insane as they all told him it was. It worked so seldom. Why would it work
with her? He felt a weight of defeat.

"Are you okay?"

"Huh? Me? Oh, sure, I'm all right. Isn't your mother going to be worried about you?"

"I don't have to be in for hours, and hours yet." For a moment she looked so grown-up he almost
believed the lie.

"Well, I'm getting tired of sitting here. And the candy's all gone." He looked at her face. Most of the
chocolate had ended up in a big circle around her mouth, except where she had wiped it daintily on
her shoulder or forearm. "What's back there?"

She turned.

"That? That's the swimming hole."

"Why don't we go over there? I'll tell you a story."