"Bowes-ShadowAndGunman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bowes Richard)

BY MAIN MIGHT

Dr. X tugged at me but I wouldn't move. "Let me work with Key. . . ." Something
crackled like ice breaking. Dr. X choked. My grandmother and I answered:

OVER NIGHTMARE'S DARK BRIDGE

Tay never raised her voice:

BY ALL RIGHT

Our final response was:

I WILL COME TO YOU

A silence followed. Dr. X tried to speak and couldn't. My grandmother could. "My
son is a police officer," she said. "Get out of this house, or I'll have you
arrested."

Tay stared stony faced. It took a long moment, but Dr. X finally let go of me
and backed out the door. He made certain signs with his fingers like he was
warding off evil spirits.

"Who was that?" my grandmother asked as the door closed. Then she felt tired and
went upstairs to rest. The last few days and the weeks before that and the
months all the way back to summer caught up with me. I slumped against the wall.

Tay led me out to the kitchen, fed me bread and butter, hot soup and cocoa. She
sat with me and said, "The things that man said can't be so. But even if they
are, I love you."

I couldn't reply.

"With your mother too, I called it Faileas. It was too much for her, poor pet."

"Faileas?" I got out the words with difficulty, my throat was so tight.

"A Shadow. Such as you have. Sometimes you should pay a little attention to what
old women say. Not always, mind you. At my age, words whiz about in the head
like bees."

I looked at her, wanting more, and she asked, "Remember the story I used to tell
about Prince Caoimin? How at his birth all the small folk, the fairies good and
bad, stood over his crib and hurled wishes at him? One side wished him happy
days, the other grievous nights, one side great wealth, the other bitter
poverty, one the hand of the princess, the other lonely death.

"Now, I know you feel too grown up for such things. But think how it could be
that there were just too many wishes for one tiny baby to handle. Maybe in their
trying to win the wishing they put too great a burden on one small head."