"Suzette Haden Elgin - And then there'll be fireworks" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elgin Suzette Haden)

At his side he felt a long shudder take his wife's body,
and he dared a quick look, sure it was the birth pains,
but she knew his thought as soon as he did, and without
turning her head she murmured to bim not to take
foolish chances, that she was all right All right, she said,
but for the whipping-

Avalon of Wommack did not scream again after the
nineteenth stroke, but Granny Leeward took care not to
leave the people wondering what was the point of laying
five more strokes on a body already dead.

"Praise be," said the Granny solemnly. "The house-
hold of this youngun can go tranquil to its beds this
night Avalon of Wommack has paid in full the debt of
her wickedness, and she stands now in eternal bliss,
smiling and singing at the right hand of the Holy One
Almighty. Praise bel"

The Magicians of Rank raised their long shears as one
man and cut the loops that held the Whipping Cloth to
the hooks, and there was nothing then to see but a pile
of bloody linen, very nearly Hat, upon the stained

ground.

Somebod/s child, walking the edge of hysteria,
screamed out over and over: "Where did Avalon of

And Then There'll Be Fireworks
Wommack go? Where is she?" And there was the ring-
ing smack of a full blow across that child's face as its
mother moved desperately to offer up a penalty before
the College of Deacons could prescribe one.

And Granny Leeward's voice rose strong and sureтАФ
and why not, seeing as how she was little more than
sixty and mighty young for a GrannyтАФleading them in
the hymn that had been chosen to end this particular
whipping. It was seemly; its title was "Divine Pain,
Willingly Endured." Except that Avalon of Wommack
had not been willing.

The members of the College of Deacons moved
along the walkway, their arms folded gravely over their
chests, watching and listening for any sign of somebody
singing with anything less than righteous enthusiasm. It
was, after all, an occasion tor celebration, what with
Avalon of Wommack's eternal bliss and her family's
tranquillity and all; and the College of Deacons was