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

She didn't see him again until she left the church. She was walking through a
quiet neighborhood talking to houses she passed, asking if any of them would
like some extra company tonight, and listening to their stories about the
festivities they had hosted, the lighted trees they held inside, the way their
humans had dressed them in jewelry of lights, when an old rest-blotched station
wagon pulled up beside her, its engine surprisingly quiet considering its
exterior, and Edmund leaned along the seat and said out the rolled-down
passenger-side window, "Want a ride?"

"What?" she said.

"Want a ride?"

"No," she said, wondering if she should run.

He pulled the car over to the curb and turned off the engine. "Want company?" he
said, climbing out. He had shoes and a coat on now.

--What's with this guy?-- she asked the car.

--He won't hurt you,-- the car said. Its voice was gentle and warm and somehow
feminine.

--Do you know what hurts?--

--Yes,-- said the car. --At least I know some of the things that hurt people.
Edmund won't hurt you.--

"What do you want?" Matt asked Edmund for the third time.

He rounded the front of the car and stood near her. "I want to walk around with
you. I want to take your hand. I want to make sure you're warm enough tonight,
and safe."

"Why?"

"Because that's where the spirit is leading me."

She reached out her gloved hand and he took it, his own warm through the leather
of her glove, his grip firm without being threatening. "Thank you," he said.

"I don't get it," she muttered.

"That's okay." He moved to stand beside her, still holding her hand, and said,
"Would you like to walk?"

"All right."

They walked without speaking for a while. Matt watched the way their breaths
misted in front of them, and the way the real mist globed around the orange