"Zenna Henderson - Holding Wonder" - читать интересную книгу автора (Henderson Zenna)

all." He dragged behind me, his feet scuffling, his sobs and sniffles jerking
to the jolting movement of his steps. But he dug in at the porch and pulled me
to a halt.

"Not inside!" he said. "OH, not inside!"

"Well, okay," I said. "We'll sit here for now"

He sat on the step below me and looked up, his face wet and shining in the
moonlight. I fished in the pocket of my robe for a tissue and swabbed his
eyes. Then I gave him another. "Blow," I said. He did. "Now, from the
beginning."

"I-" He had recourse to the tissue again. "I came to get the capsule. It was
the only way I could think of to get the man."

Silence crept around his flat statement until I said "That's the beginning?"

Tears started again. I handed him another tissue. "Now look, Vincent,
something's been bothering you for several days. Have you talked it over with
your parents?"

"No," he hiccoughed. "I'm not supp-upposed to listen in on people. It isn't
fair. But I didn't really. He came in first and I can't shut him out now
because I know he's in trouble, and you can't not help if you know about
somebody's need-"

Maybe, I thought hopefully, maybe this is still my nap that I'll soon wake
from-but I sighed.

"Who is this man? The one that's orbiting?"

"Yes," he said, and cut the last hope for good solid sense from under my feet.
"He's up in a capsule and its retro-rockets won't fire. Even if he could live
until the orbital decay dropped him back into the atmosphere, the re-enty
would burn him up. And he's so afraid! He's trapped! He can't get out!"

I took hold of both of his shaking shoulders. "Calm down," I said. "You can't
help him like this:" He buried his face against the skirt of my robe. I slid
one of my hands over to his neck and patted him for a moment.

"How did you make the capsule move?" I asked. "It did move, didn't it?"

"Yes," he said. "I lifted it. We can, you know-lift things. My People can. But
I'm not big enough. I'm not supposed to anyway, and I can't sustain the lift.
And if I can't even get it out of this canyon, how can I lift clear out of the
atmosphere? And he'll die-scared!"

You can make things fly?" I asked.