《Rwanda》作者： - Robert Reed【EPUB】

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Rwanda by Robert Reed Robert Reed's newest collection of short stories, The Cuckoo's Boys, recently came out from Golden Gryphon Press. Stories in the book that were originally published in Asimov's include "Savior" (August 1998), "She Sees My Monsters Now" (June 2002), and "On the Brink of that Bright New World" (January 1993). Of his latest tale he says, "I had this half-idea for a story, but I didn't know how to start it. Then under a pine tree, my three-year-old found a freshly emerged cicada..." * * * * Beneath a mangled pine tree, you find the empty shell of a cicada, crystalline and robotic and very lovely. And beside that shell lies something even better--a bug, fat and pale and large enough to halfway fill the palm of your tiny hand. Is the bug alive? Apparently so. It doesn't breathe as you breathe, nor can those dark buggy eyes blink or wink or convey any sense of emotion. But the creature is soft and wet, and its limbs seem to move slowly in response to your little prods. A pair of wings extends from the long back, but they are shriveled and plainly useless, and your first inclination is to guess that the creature you are holding has been poisoned or burned in some horrific, wondrous fashion. Your father sits on the patio drinking beer. Many elements go into your calculations. What time of day is it? How many cans are stacked near his bare feet? By his posture, can you read his mood, and if so, does it look as if he can endure one of your questions, and after that, maybe twenty more? The day is still early, not even noon yet