"Walter Jon Williams - Daddy's World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Williams Walter John)

Jamie began to cry. So did Momma. Daddy paced up and down and swore, and then he said, "I'm
going to go get her." Jamie was afraid he'd disappear like Becca, and he gave a cry of despair,
but Daddy didn't disappear, he just stalked out of the dining room and slammed the door behind
him.
Momma pulled Jamie onto her lap and hugged him. "Don't worry, Jamie," she said. "Becky just
did that to be mean."
"What happened?" Jamie asked.
"Don't worry about it." Momma stroked his hair. "It was just a mean trick."
"She's growing up," Jamie said. "She's grown faster than me and I don't understand."
"Wait till Daddy gets back," Momma said, "and we'll talk about it."
But Daddy was clearly in no mood for talking when he returned, without Becca. "We're going to
have fun," he snarled, and reached for the knife to cut the cake.
The cake tasted like ashes in Jamie's mouth. When the Don and Princess Gigunda, Mister
Jeepers and Rizzio the Strongman came into the dining room and sang "Happy Birthday," it was all
Jamie could do to hold back the tears.
Afterwards, he drove his new car to the Circus Maximus and drove as fast as he could on the
long oval track. The car really wouldn't go very fast. The bleachers on either side were empty,
and so was the blue sky above.
Maybe it was a puzzle, he thought, like Princess Gigunda's love life. Maybe all he had to do
was follow the right clue, and everything would be fine.
What's the moral they're trying to teach? he wondered.
But all he could do was go in circles, around and around the empty stadium.

****

"Hey, Digit. Wake up."
Jamie came awake suddenly, with a stifled cry. The room whirled around him. He blinked,
realized that the whirling came from the colored lights projected by his birthday present, Becca's
lamp stand.
Becca was sitting on his bedroom chair, a cigaret in her hand. Her feet, in the steel-capped
boots she'd been wearing lately, were propped up on the bed.
"Are you awake, Jamie?" It was Selena's voice. "Would you like me to sing you a lullaby?"
"Fuck off, Selena," Becca said. "Get out of here. Get lost."
Selena cast Becca a mournful look, then sailed backwards, out the window, riding a beam of
moonlight to her pale home in the sky. Jamie watched her go, and felt as if a part of himself was
going with her, a part that he would never see again.
"Selena and the others have to do what you tell them, mostly," Becca said. "Of course, Mom
and Dad wouldn't tell you that."
Jamie looked at Becca. "What's happening?" he said. "Where did you go today?"
Colored lights swam over Becca's face. "I'm sorry if I spoiled your birthday, Digit. I just
got tired of the lies, you know? They'd kill me if they knew I was here now, talking to you."
Becca took a draw on her cigaret, held her breath for a second or two, then exhaled. Jamie didn't
see or taste any smoke.
"You know what they wanted me to do?" she said. "Wear a little girl's body, so I wouldn't
look any older than you, and keep you company in that stupid school for seven hours a day." She
shook her head. "I wouldn't do it. They yelled and yelled, but I was damned if I would."
"I don't understand."
Becca flicked invisible ashes off her cigaret, and looked at Jamie for a long time. Then she
sighed.
"Do you remember when you were in the hospital?" she said.