（外文电子版资料）Pat Cadigan -Is There Life After Rehab.pdf

SCI FICTION | Is there Life After Rehab? Is There Life After Rehab? by Pat Cadigan Oral sex and only oral sex, said a womans voice somewhere on my right. Forget beef consommé, forget gravy, forget any of that shit. Its got to be oral sex or nothing. Now thats one hell of a conversation to wake up in the middle of, I thought, trying to open my eyes. I was slumped on a sofa in some dimly lit place that smelled like a bar. Had to be one of those cocktail lounges that were springing up around the city of late. Trends, eh? You never know whats going to be chic next. Or even chicy/Mickey, as we used to say back when the Berlin Wall was coming down. Pronounced sheeky-meeky, it meant something was both trés chic and Mickey Mouse all at once. Cant tell you who came up with that one, but I can tell you that I find myself using it now more than ever, even though no one knows what the hell Im talking about. But wasnt that rather, uh, awkward? asked a different woman, on my left. I struggled to raise my drooping head. With my eyelids fluttering, I could only see what looked like a malfunctioning filmstrip of my own lap and part of two others on either side, both of which were far better dressed than mine. Thats the understatement of the decade, said the woman on my right. I must have passed out during a less interesting conversation, I decided, and my rudeness had driven away whomever had been sitting next to me. Then these two had taken their places. I just hoped they didnt think me rude for waking up uninvited. But that wasnt the worst part, the woman on my right went on. You know what the worst part was? Nobody appreciated it. Left: Youre kidding. Right: I dont kid about things like oral sex. If Im lyin, Im dyin, to borrow a saying from you-know- who. Both sides laughed together. Obvious