"Brown,.Mary.-.Unicorn's.Ring.2.-.1994.-.Pigs.Don't.Fly" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Mary)

small box after eating too much.
PIGS DON'T FLY
25
They watched me with interest.
"Is it working?" asked the priest.
"Yes," I gasped, and begged him for absolution.
"Excellent," said the priest, looking relieved. "We shall repair to the church,
choose the burial site and you may confess your mother's sins and I shall
absolve her."
It was cold inside the church for the sun was now gone and twilight shrouded the
altar, mercifully hiding the mural of the Day of Judgment which, faded though it
was, always gave me nightmares. To be sure, there were the righteous rising in
their underwear to Heaven, but the unknown artist had had an inspired brush with
the damned, their mouths open on silent screams as they tumbled towards the
flames, poked and prodded by the demons of the Devil.
The priest led me through Mama's confessionЧit was very strange confessing
unknown sins for someone elseЧ ana he told me to confess to absolutely
everything, just in case. Some of those sins he prompted me with I had never
even heard of.
"Now you may either say a thousand Hail Marys in expiation, or perhaps find it
more convenient to make a small donation," he said hopefully.
As it happened I had the change from buying the salt still tied round my waist
in my special purse-pocket, so he gave me a hurried full absolution to our
mutual satisfaction. Immediately it seemed as though the dreadful heaviness left
me, just like shucking off a heavy load of firewood after a long tramp home. Now
Mama could ascend to Heaven happily with the rest of the righteous.
We came out into a dusky churchyard, and found the others grouped in the far
corner against the wall.
"This'll do," said the mayor. Next to the rubbish dump. "It'll take less digging
and is nicely screened from view. Why, you could even scratch the date of death
on the wall behind. Pity she couldn't lie next to your father, girl, but of
course his bones were tossed to the pigs long agoЧ"
"My father?" I could not believe what I was hearing.
26
Mary Broum
My father had been driven away by jealous villagers and
aid
me so.
dared not return; my mother had tol
"Of course. Led us a merry chase, but we caught him about two mile into the
forest, andЧ"
"She doesn't know," interrupted the miller, glancing at my face. "Happen her Ma
told her something different." He lookea at the others. "No point in bringing it
up now."
I could feel something crumbling inside me, just like the hopeful dams I had
built as a child across the stream, only to see them crumble with the first
rains. I had cherished for years the vision of a handsome soldier-father forced
to leave his only love, my beautiful mother, and now they were trying to sayЧ
"Tell me!" I shrieked, the anger and bewilderment escaping me like air from a
pricked bladder, surprising them and myself so much that we all jumped apart as