"Hoffman-HereWeCome" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hoffman Abbie)

"No." Matt shook her head. "No, no."

"Okay," he said. He pulled his legs up, bent knees against his chest, and
gripped his feet.

She watched him for a while. His feet and hands started to gray to match the
stone bench, and then the dark was too heavy for her to make out details.

"Uh," she said. "I'm going back to town now. Nice meeting you."

"I'll come with you."

"I'd rather you didn't."

"Oh. All right. Thanks for the sandwich."

"You're welcome." She stood and walked away quickly, chasing mist whenever she
could.

She found a newspaper in a phone booth and scanned the page of church services,
then picked an early one to go to. She liked churches on Christmas Eve, the
pageantry, the carols, the candles and greenery, the warmth, the smells of hot
wax and pine and incense and perfume and even mothballs from some of the fancy
clothes people wore. She liked the idea that a kid born in a cave could be
important.

She settled in a back pew and watched everything with interest. Children thought
about presents, those opened and those still waiting, full of promises. Some of
the grown-ups did too. Some people were thinking about the service, and some
were thinking about going to sleep. Some were remembering their dinners. Some
were worried because they hadn't finished wrapping things or they hadn't found
the right presents, and others were happy because they had done what they could.

A woman in front of Matt kept thinking about washing a mountain of dishes. She
would sigh, and start the task in her mind again, go through it dish by dish,
each spoon and fork and knife, and sigh, and start again. Matt tuned her out and
focused on a child who was watching the candles and listening to the singing and
thinking about the words of the songs and making the flames go in and out of
focus, flames, flat disks of light, flames. A child in another place looked at
every scrap of red clothing, hoping to glimpse Santa Claus. A man cradled a
sleeping child. When he looked down at her he saw his arms full of golden light.
Another child looked at the priest and saw angels behind him. Matt wondered if
maybe the angels were really there. They had beautiful smiles and kind eyes.

The church was full. It lived and breathed, a big organism full of different
cells and tissues, everything cooperating.

Matt kept an eye out for the moss man. What did he want from her? He wasn't a
normal human. She couldn't guess which way he'd jump.