Queen City Jazz by Kathleen Ann Goonan

Author:Kathleen Ann Goonan
Language: eng
Format: mobi, azw3, epub, pdf
Tags: Nanotech Series
Published: 2011-11-09T01:32:42+00:00

* * *

Twenty

Singin’ in the Rain

Verity woke the next morning rather late, for her. The sun was high. Maybe ten.

She pulled on her boots and tied them, then stood, smoothed her long-sleeved T-shirt and tucked it into her long pants, picked up her jacket, and tried to make the library work.

But it was still dead, like the limp unresponding limb of a sleeping person. She descended the stairs to the street.

She was quite glad when the doors slid open for her, and when the air that hit her was balmy.

Small shops lined the street, and to her surprise she saw real people populating the sidewalks. They didn’t have that shimmery sharp holo look.

Two teenage boys walked past her. One wore a red baseball cap pulled low that said “The Cincinnati Red Legs.” The other wore an opened leather jacket, and his shirttail hung below. The boy closest to her stared at her for an instant as he passed, and she saw his nostrils flare in dislike.

She felt his dislike in some other, deeper way too, some new way that she didn’t really understand.

She stood in the doorway for a moment, taken aback.

She was suddenly in a thriving City of strangers. She looked up the street, which turned into a steep hill a block away. Two solar cars were descending slowly, and a streetcar with people leaning out the windows, enjoying the warm spring air. Everything felt abustle and alive. Brightness filled her thoughts for a moment: so this was what it was like! The ghost cities and dead towns of her childhood hid within this one for a moment, and she was suddenly afraid that they would trade places, and she would be alone, once again. Just a week ago it had been almost like that here. Where had all these people come from?

She smelled approaching rain. At least the weather here was the same. You’re part of the same earth, she thought. Part of the same system, no matter how the City contrived to trap her. You asked for it, she told herself, then No, I didn’t. I didn’t ask for this. I asked to save Blaze.

And I still shall.

I will beat you, City!

She looked upward, shading her eyes.

Half a block down was a tall, yet stocky building. It was a pale, lovely green, glowing gently. She saw the edge of a large pink petal waving in the breeze, and the darker green leaves around it stood up straight and spearlike. Though stone and concrete were everywhere she smelled the damp earth, mingled with a stunningly sweet scent.

A deep tone filled the air and then, beneath hearing, her very cells.

She knew instantly what it was. She shielded her eyes against the sun and looked up.

A Bee floated above, its furlike body limned against the sun. It did not move swiftly, but still took only a fraction of a minute to cross the street.

Her first! No, her second, she reminded herself, filled with excitement and dread.

A woman passed by with

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