"Thomas M. Disch - The Shadow" - читать интересную книгу автора (Disch Thomas M)

 It finally reached the point where the only time Angie or her
shadow ever stirred from the house was on Sunday mornings and,
sometimes, on Wednesday evenings, when AngieтАЩs friend Lucille
would pick her up and take her to the United Baptist Church in
Chambersville. Lucille had been a beautician before she was
married, so she also did AngieтАЩs hair and nails every two or three
weeks, at AngieтАЩs home, after the Wednesday prayer meeting.
AngieтАЩs shadow was always keenly attentive to everything that
Lucille said or did during the beauty treatments. Those
Wednesdays were the high points of the shadowтАЩs limited life, and
probably of AngieтАЩs as well. So when Lucille brought up the subject
of The Throne of Darkness AngieтАЩs shadow was transfixed. It began to
vibrate like a tuning fork thatтАЩs heard the vibration itтАЩs been
designed to pick up.
The Throne of Darkness was a paperback book by Cassandra
Knye that Lucille had checked out, with four other paperbacks,
from the Chambersville Municipal Library. Lucille had had a
long-standing grievance with the libraryтАЩs book selection process
and with the chief librarian, Edward Holme, but The Throne of
Darkness represented something worse than anything up to now, an
assault against the moral well-being of the entire community,
especially the children. It was a threat that had to be met head on,
and so Lucille was circulating a petition to have the book, and a
number of others just like it, taken off the library shelves. Everyone
at the prayer meeting had signed LucilleтАЩs petition, even Pastor
Raines, though heтАЩd refused to let Lucille read aloud the most
offensive passages from the book, since they were there in the
church basement.
But Lucille insisted on reading one of those passages now,
while they waited for the tint to take. тАЬListen to this part, just
listen. тАШLocking herself away from the curious stares and whispers
of the others, Sister Rosemond began to fear herself. She couldnтАЩt
sleep, and when she did the figure of Ariston would appear before
her robed in white with golden sandals on his feet. The sands of
the desert eddied about him, as though obedient to his will. She,
too, was obedient to his will. Nude and wet, she walked toward
him across the burning sand. His arms embraced her, his lips
parted in an obscene invitation. He drew away his white robe to
reveal his grotesque nakedness and threw her down acrossтАФтАЩтАЭ
тАЬPlease,тАЭ said Angie. тАЬPlease donтАЩt read anymore. ItтАЩs just
tooтАж I wish you wouldnтАЩt.тАЭ
тАЬIt gets worse,тАЭ Lucille promised.
тАЬIтАЩm sure it does.тАЭ
тАЬBut you can see, just from that much, that itтАЩs Satanism pure
and simple. And any child can walk into that library and check out
the book.тАЭ There was no getting her off it, and Angie had to sit
there while Lucille finished with her hair and listen to it all, how
children were playing a game called Dungeons and Dragons and
then committing suicide, and how there were books in the library
along the same lines. How there were crimes that the police