"Mary Janice Davidson - Dying For Ice Cream" - читать интересную книгу автора (Davidson Mary Janice)

Dull pain in his nose; he stepped back, observing the elevator
door closing faster than he had anticipated. Beside him, a
robed patient about to step in the elevator looked at him with
concern.

"That looked like it hurt. You okay?"

"Fine, I'm fine," he replied absently, and he was, because he
had the knack of knowing something was going to happen
seconds before it actually did.

So, basically, he had no excuse for not leaping nimbly down
the stairwell and saving Langenfeld. There's he'd been,
practically sprinting down the stairs to get away from the kid,
ignoring Langenfeld's shrieked, "You flunked the quiz because
you didn't know what a preposition was! I can help you!"
Then, just as Austin was clawing for the doorknob: "Gerunds
can be your frienтАФaaiiiggghh!" Then a series of thuds.

Austin shivered, banishing the memory. Langenfeld had
seemed okay, if a little dazed, but there was blood all over the
place from where the kid had banged his head, and Austin
had driven him to the ER, just to be safe. He'd have to do
something extra nice for the kid to make up for it, too. Take
him to a basketball game. Polish his calculator. Pass a
grammar test. Something.

These dark thoughts brought him to the cafeteria. It was
close to empty this time of day, which was why he noticed the
girl right away. She was about his age, maybe a little younger,
and really pretty. Gorgeous, in fact. Long red hair and skin
the color of a vanilla milkshake. He couldn't see her eyes from
here, but was sure they'd be green. She was the prettiest girl
he'd seen out-side of the movies. One look at her, and poor
Robert Langenfeld vanished from his thoughts.

She was sitting at one of the tables, looking at a big bowl of
ice cream and crying. And she wasn't eating the ice cream,
just staring at it and sobbing like someone had knifed her
puppy.

Austin moved past her, toward the dairy case. He could still
hear her crying softly. He looked around but there were only
two other people in the cafeteria, and neither of them was
paying attention. One of them, in fact, was asleep. If anyone
was going to say anything to her, it would have to be him.
"Never mind, dude," he muttered under his breath. "None of
your business."