"Carol Emshwiller - At Sixes and Sevens" - читать интересную книгу автора (Emshwiller Carol)

When I take a rest from housework I take my tea up and watch her out
my east side upstairs window. I can see her best when sheтАЩs in her weedy
vegetable garden. She talks as she works ... or at least I see her mouth
moving. Singing would be one thing, but this looks more like jabber, jabber,
jabber. What in the world can she be jabbering about? and who to?

SheтАЩs done that since she was a little girlтАФyapping to herself.
Jumping about so youтАЩd think she was a baby goat.

I say itтАЩs her own fault if everything goes wrong. Though she wouldnтАЩt
tell us if it did or didnтАЩt, and now that thereтАЩs a drought things are going
wrong for everybody.

Though why should we care? IтАЩve only talked to her, face to face, a
couple of times. SheтАЩs one of those people that doesnтАЩt look you in the eye.
All these years, IтАЩve lived next door, and I donтАЩt even know what color her
eyes are. I can guess though. You canтАЩt have hair that light and fine and
have dark eyes.

WeтАЩre the ones took her to the clinic to get a cast on her leg. We
stayed the night in town and brought her back the next day. She had us ...
let us, that is, set her up in her so-called living room on the so-called couch.
(I wonder how many generations of cats have scratched at it. The one now
is a marmalade tabby. A nasty male. He arched his back and spit at me. I
canтАЩt help thinking thatтАЩs what she wanted to do to me, too. Iris. Her name,
not the catтАЩs.)

She actually did thank us. At least that. Though she didnтАЩt even look at
me then. I left her with plenty of food and water. I didnтАЩt feed the tabby.

I might not have seen her at all, down there behind her lilacs. SheтАЩd
climbed up to fix an attic window. She didnтАЩt yell out for anybody. She just
lay there. I went upstairs to my window to see what in the world she was
doing now, and there she was, her legs sticking out from the bushes. And
later that afternoon when I went up to see again, there they still were.

I sort of wanted her to fall but I didnтАЩt think somebody like her, who
used to climb everything in sight, ever really would.

When I saw she had, I thought, well, she canтАЩt object to me going
over to see whatтАЩs wrong, so I did, and a good thing, too. But, as I keep
saying, helping people is a thankless task.

****

ThereтАЩs something wrong with her. All her dadтАЩs fault no doubt. IтАЩve
been watching her more and more. Daniel says IтАЩm not getting my chores
done, but I want to see what sheтАЩs up to. I tell him it might be important. I
say, тАЬWhat if sheтАЩs a witch? What if this drought is her fault? What about
that she dances in her backyard at midnight when thereтАЩs a full moon?тАЭ (Or