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

Was that what she wanted? Everything burned? But wasn't that what her people,
the Travelers, did? Hadn't she told me once that when a chief died his van was
piled with his belongings, his dogs and horses were sacrificed and all consumed
in a great pyre? Then if that was what she wanted, that was what she should
have.
I approached the bed again. "You shall have a bonfire
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Mary Brown
fit for a queen," I told the silent figure. "They shall not have your bed, your
dresses, your cnair; I promise."
"Open ... Fly .. ."
I frowned; what did that little voice mean: Fly? What was to fly? There was a
moth doing a crazy dance round one of the guttering candles and I moved my hand
to bat it away, upon which it swerved over my head and made for the shuttered
window, beating frantically against the wood. Then I understood.
"Sorry, Mama . .."
Ceremoniously I flung back the shutters onto the night, then wedged open the
door. Coming back to the bed I blew out the candles, one by one, then knelt to
pray. I prayed for a safe journey for my mother's soul, reminding God that her
sins were all absolved. Then I leaned over for the last time and kissed her
brow.
"All ready, Mama. Go with God." As I did so it seemed a little breeze stirred
the hangings, and I distinctly felt a rap on my headЧthe sort Mama used to make
with her knuckles when I had completed a task after a reminder. A moment later
the door crashed shut. She had gone.
I refastened door and window, then bethought myself of my own arrangements. If I
were to be away from here before they discovered what I had done, tnen I must
pack up all I needed for my journey quickly. Clothes, food, utensils, blanket,
money ... Money. Where had Mama put my dowry? Frantically I searched all the
places it could be and came up with nothing. It must be somewhere; Mama wouldn't
have made it up. I wished it was light again, for the cottage was full of
shadows and every corner looked like a potential hiding place. I must find it, I
must! I couldn't lace the wide world with the few coins left in Mama's box and
the couple the miller had left me.
Opening Mama's box, however, discovered her bracelets, necklet and brooches, and
the horn ring my father had left behind. I took them over to the bed, fastened
the brooch and necklet, and then tried to force the ring onto her fingers, one
after the other, but it wouldn't go:
PIGS DON'T FLY
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her fingers were too fat. Strange, she had long, slim fingers. I put on the
bracelets, deciding I would take the ring with me, wearing it on a string round
my neck. It might bring me luck, I thought, and without thinking slipped it onto
the middle finger of my right hand, while I bent forward to adjust the bracelets
on Mama's wrists to their best advantage.
As I placed her hands once more crossed upon her breast, I noticed something
strange; although I was certain I had washed her thoroughly there was what
looked like a sooty residue caught under the fingernails of her right handЧAll
at once I knew where the dowry would be. Rushing over to the fireplace I felt
high up in the chimney, first to one side, then the other. At first all I got