"John Kessel - The Invisible Empire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kessel John)

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Copyright ┬й2002 by John Kessel

First published in Conjunctions #39, ed. Peter Straub, September 2002


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Inspired by Karen Joy Fowler's story

"Game Night at the Fox and Goose"



When Henrietta and Hiram Patterson arrived at the church that Sunday, Henrietta's arm was bound to a
splint, tied up in a sling made from a blue kerchief. In the quiet chat of the congregation before we
entered the church, Henrietta allowed as how she had been kicked by the mule, but I was not the only
observer to notice Hiram's sidelong watchfulness, and the fact that their two boys kept their mother
between themselves and their father at all times.

The congregation was more subdued than usual in the wake of the news of that week. Robert and I sat
in the third pew; Sarah sat with her husband and three children a row ahead of us. Lydia Field, her black
hair piled high beneath a modest straw hat, kept watch from the choir loft. Beautiful Iris sat in front with
her beau Henry Fletcher. Louellen was not a church-goer, and Sophonsiba attended the colored church.

As the Pattersons took seats in our pew, I nodded toward them. Hiram, shaved clean and his hair
parted neatly in the middle, nodded gravely back. Henrietta avoided my gaze. Their older boy took up a
hymnal and paged through it.
The service began with the singing of тАЬWhen Adam Was CreatedтАЭ
When Adam was created,
He dwelt in Eden's shade;
As Moses has related,