"Huff, Tanya - What Ho, Magic!" - читать интересную книгу автора (Huff Tanya)

When the concrete closed around Carl's arm, he remembered there had been two men trapped.
Sometimes the wind moans in the tunnels. Sometimes, it shrieks.

The guidelines for The Christmas Bestiary said we were to write about mythological creatures enjoying and/or celebrating Christmas. Well, two but of three of my mythological creatures weren't enjoying Christmas very much but I can assure you that the third one had a very good time.
The part of Sid-cat is being played by the eldest member of my personal menagerie. Unfortunately, Revenue Canada refuses to agree that this makes him a deduction.


I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

"Еyes, you'll be dressed in holiday style if you come down to Big Bob's pre-Christmas clothing sale. All the fashions, all the frills, all major credit cards acceptedЕ "
"Are we there yet?"
"Soon, honey."
"How soon?"
"Soon."
"I'm gonna be sick."
Elaine Montgomery took her eyes off the road just long enough to shoot a panicked glance at her daughter's flushed face. "We're almost there, Katie. Can't you hold on just a little bit longer?"
"No!" The last letter stretched and lengthened into a wail that completely drowned out the tinny sound of the car radio and threatened to shatter glass.
As Elaine swerved the car towards the shoulder, an echoing wail rose up from the depths of the beige plastic cat carrier securely strapped down in the back seat. The last time she'd assumed Katie could hold on for the two kilometers to the next rest stop, it had taken her over an hour to clean the car Ц which had allowed the cat's tranquilizers to wear off long before they arrived at their destination.
Neither Katie nor the cat were very good travelers.
"Mommy!"
Wet gravel spun under the tires as she fought the car and trailer to a standstill. "Just another second, honey. Grit your teeth." How many times can you throw up one lousy cheese sandwich? she wondered unbuckling her seatbelt and reaching for her daughter's. Thank god she's not still in the kiddie car seat. It had taken a good twenty minutes and an advanced engineering degree to get Katie in and out of the safety seat and all signs indicated she had closer to twenty seconds.
"It's all right, baby. Mommy's got you." She slid them both out the passenger door and went to her knees in a puddle to better steady the four year old's shaking body. December rain drove icy fingers down the back of her neck and, not for the first time since leaving Toronto that morning, Elaine wondered what the hell she was doing heading into the middle of nowhere with a four year old, a very pissed off cat, and all her worldly goods, two weeks before Christmas.
Trying to survive, came the answer.
I knew that. She sighed and kissed Katie's wet curls.
"Ms. Montgomery?" Upon receiving an affirmative answer, the woman who'd come out of the house as the car pulled up popped open an umbrella and hurried forward. "I'm Catherine Henderson. Your late aunt's lawyer? So nice to finally meet you at last. I was afraid you weren't going to make it before I had to leave. Here, let me take the catЕ"
Elaine willingly surrendered the cat-carrier, tucked Katie up under one arm and grabbed for their bag of essentials with the other. The two-story brick farmhouse loomed up out of the darkness like the haven she hoped it was and, feeling more than just a little numb, she followed the steady stream of chatter up onto the porch and into the kitchen.
"No need to lock the car, you're miles away from anyone who might want to steal it out here. I hope you don't mind going around to the back, I can't remember the last time the front door was opened. Careful on that step, there's a crack in the cement. The porch was a later addition to the original farmhouse which was built by your late aunt's father in the twenties. You'll haVe to excuse the smell; your aunt got a bit, well, eccentric later in life and kept a pair of pigs in here over last winter. I had the place scoured and disinfected after we spoke on the phone but I'm afraid the smell is going to be with you for a while." She dropped the umbrella into a pail by the door and heaved the carrier up onto the kitchen table. "Good heavens he's a big one isn't he? Did he wail like that all the way from Toronto?"
"No." Elaine put Katie down and brushed wet hair back off her face. "Only for the last one hundred kilometers or so."
"I'll let him out, Mommy." Small fingers struggled with the latch for a second and then a grey and white blur leapt from the table and disappeared under the tattered lounge by the window. "Leave him be, Katie." A quick grab kept her daughter from burrowing beneath the furniture with the cat. "He needs to be alone for a while."
"Okay." Katie turned, looked speculatively up at the lawyer and announced, "I puked all over the car."
"I'm sorry to hear that." Catherine took the pronouncement in stride. "If you're feeling sick again," she crossed the kitchen and opened one of four identical doors, "the bathroom is through here." Reaching for the next door over, she continued. "This is the bedroom your aunt used Ц I suggest you use it as well as it's the only room in the house that's insulated. This is the hall, leading to the front door and the stairs Ц another four bedrooms up there, but as I said, uninsulated. And this is the cellar." Elaine took an almost involuntary step forward. "What was that?"
"What was what?" the other woman asked carefully, closing the cellar door.
"The music. I heard musicЕjust for a second. It sounded like, likeЕ" Obviously, the lawyer hadn't heard it, so Elaine let the explanation trail off.
"Yes, well, these old houses make a lot of strange noises. There's an oil furnace down there but it must be close to twenty-five years old so I wouldn't count on it too much. I think your aunt depended on the woodstove. You do know how to use a woodstove, don't you?"
"I think I can figure it out." The question had hovered just on the edge of patronizing and Elaine decided not to admit her total lack of experience. You bum wood; how hard can it be? Whole forests burn down on their own every year.
"Good. I've left a casserole and a liter of milk in the fridge, I don't imagine you'll want to cook after that long drive. You've got my number, if you need anything don't hesitate to call."
"Thank you." As Catherine retrieved her umbrella^ Elaine held open the porch door and wrinkled her nose. "Urn, I was wondering, what happened to the pigs when my aunt died?"
"Worried about wild boars tearing up the property? You needn't; the pigs shuffled off this mortal coil months before your aunt did. There might still be packages marked Porky or Petunia in the freezer out in the woodshed."
Elaine closed the door on Catherine's laugh and leaned for a moment against the peeling paint. Porky and Petunia. Right. It had been a very long day. She started as skinny arms wrapped around her leg.
"Mommy? I'm hungry."
"I'm not surprised." She took a deep breath, turned and scooped her daughter up onto her hip. "But first we're both putting on some dry clothes. How does that sound?"
Katie shrugged. "Sounds okay."
On the way to the bedroom, Elaine dropped the overnight case and pulled the cellar door open a crack, just to check. There was a faint, liquid trill of sound and then the only thing she could hear was water running into the cistern.
"Mommy?"
"Did you hear the music, Katie?"
Katie listened with all the intensity only a small child could muster. "No," she said at last. "No music. What did it sound like?"
"Nothing honey. Mommy must have been imagining it." It had sounded like an invitation, but not the kind that could be discussed with a four-year-old. It probably should have been frightening, but it wasn't. Each note had sent shivers of anticipation dancing over her skin. Elaine was willing to bet the farm Ц well maybe not that, as this rundown old place was the only refuge they had Ц that she hadn't been imagining anything.
The forest was the most alive place she'd ever been; lush and tangled, with bushes reaching up and trees reaching down and wild flowers and ferns tucked in every possible nook and cranny. She danced through it to the wild call of the music and when she realized she was naked, it didn't seem to matter. Nothing scratched, nothing prickled, and the ground under her bare feet had the resilience of a good foam mattress.
Oh yes! the music agreed.
The path the music led her down had been danced on before and her steps followed the imprint of a pair of cloven hooves.