"Elizabeth Hand - Chip Crockett's Xmas Carol" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hand Elizabeth)

Chip Crockett's Christmas Carol
by Elizabeth Hand

"This day we shut out Nothing!"

"Pause," says a low voice. "Nothing?
Think!"

"On Christmas Day, we will shut out
from our fireside, Nothing."

"Not the shadow of a vast City where the
withered leaves are lying deep?" the
voice replies. "Not the shadow that
darkens the whole globe? Not the
shadow of the City of the Dead?"

Not even that тАж

тАФCharles Dickens, "What Christmas Is as
We Grow Older"


Tony was the one who called him.

"Brendan, man. I got some bad news."

Brendan felt a slight hitch in his stomach. He leaned
back in his chair, nudging his office door closed so
his secretary wouldn't hear. "Oh yes?"

"Chip Crockett died."

"Chip Crockett?" Brendan frowned, staring at his
computer screen as though he was afraid Tony
might materialize there. "You mean, like, The Chip
Crockett Show?"

"Yeah, man." Tony sighed deeply. "My brother Jake,
he just faxed me the obituary from the Daily News.
He died over the weekend but they just announced
it today."

There was a clunk through the phone receiver, a
background clatter of shouting voices and footsteps.
Tony was working as a substitute teacher at Saint
Ignatius High School. Brendan was amazed he'd
been able to hang onto the job at all, but he
gathered that being a substitute at Saint Ignatius
was way below being sanitation engineer in terms of