[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
genetically engineered viruses in the home timeline already. No transposition
chamber would come to the room deep under Mr. Brooks' shop till somebody found
a cure for this one. The quarantine methods the home timeline used were a lot
more effective than roadblocks, with or without soldiers. Stuck. The word
resounded in his mind. Stuck. Stuck. Stuck.
"She'll be the way she is. And you are all right as long as you don't come
down sick." Beckie knocked wood. Justin wondered how old that superstition
was. Plenty old enough to be in both this alternate and the home timeline.
Older than the breakpoint, then. Thinking about things like that hurt a lot
less than thinking about the disease or the war or what a mess this assignment
turned out to be.
"I'm not the only one to worry about. You're in as much danger as I am,"
Justin said.
"Everybody in Elizabeth's in danger," Beckie said, which was bound to be true.
She laughed. "If I didn't come with Gran, I could be lying on the beach right
now, you know?"
"Sorry about that," Justin said.
"You want a fizz?" she asked.
"Sure," Justin said. They walked into the kitchen together. Before she opened
the refrigerator, he put his arm around her. She gave him a surprised look but
not too surprised. "Thanks for listening to me," he told her. "Thank for
putting up with me, you know?"
"No problem," she said. "It works both ways, believe me." She squeezed him for
a second. Then she slipped away. "Fizzes."
He drank his in a hurry. It wasn't just like anything in the home timeline,
but it was sweet and cold. It even had caffeine in it. What more could you
want? He wondered if he should try something more with Beckie. Something about
the set of her mouth told him it wouldn't be a good idea right this minute.
Then her grandmother walked into the kitchen. "Oh," she said. "The boy." By
the way she eyed him, he might have been something she'd just cleaned off the
Page 68
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
floor with a wet paper towel.
"Gran!" Beckie said.
"What?" her grandmother said. "It is him, isn't it?"
Oh, yeah, Justin thought. You stick in the knife and then you try to pretend
you didn't mean anything by it. And if he got mad if he told her where to go
and how to get there or even if he showed he was annoyed any way at all she
won. She was a sweet old lady, and he was just a punk kid. The very best he
could do in the game was break even, and the only way he could do that was to
make believe he didn't notice a thing. Kids had had to do stuff like that
since Urk the australopithecine broke an antelope bone over Urk, Junior's,
head for making a monkey out of himself when he shouldn't have. Nope, you
couldn't win.
Beckie's grandmother took a pear out of the fridge, looked at it, breathed all
over it, and then put it back and got out another one. She went away,
munching. You chew with your mouth open, too, Justin thought.
Once her grandmother was gone, Beckie sighed. "I'm sorry," she said. "She's
like that."
"What can you do?" Justin said. "My aunt's a world-class dingbat. People
choose their friends. Your family? You're stuck with your family."
"Stuck with." Beckie looked in the direction her grandmother had gone. "Boy,
you can say that again. I feel like she's my ball and chain."
"Yeah, well. . ." Justin kind of shrugged. "It's not like you're going
anywhere much, not the way things are."
"Tell me about it." Beckie cocked her head to one side, listening. "What's
that? That rumble, I mean?"
"Sounds like more trackforts and stuff," Justin answered. "But that's crazy.
They pulled out to fight the uprising, and now they're coming back? Why would
they do that?" Suddenly he flashed on Mr. Brooks, and he knew just what the
older man would say, right down to his tone of voice. "I bet the right hand
doesn't know what the left hand's doing." He sounded cynical enough to alarm
himself.
He made Beckie blink, too. But she said, "I bet you're right. Either that
or" she looked scared "they're soldiers from Ohio instead."
She probably didn't care about Virginia or Ohio. She didn't want to get stuck
in the middle of fighting, that was all. Since Justin felt the same way, he
couldn't very well argue with her. Even so, he said, "I don't think they're
Ohioans. The noise is coming from that way, not that way." He pointed first
east, then west.
Beckie listened, then nodded. "It is, isn't it? That's a little better." No,
she didn't care about either side. After a couple of seconds, she remembered
he was supposed to. "I didn't mean "
"Don't worry about it," he said. "To somebody from a rich state on the other
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pldoc.pisz.plpdf.pisz.plcs-sysunia.htw.pl
|
