"Nancy Kress - Phillipa's Hands" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kress Nancy)

She meant to say furiously, тАЬAnd you oughtn't be breaking and entering into people's houses, Sam Hall!тАЭ
but those weren't the words that came. Instead she heard herself say, тАЬThere wasn't anything else I could
do,тАЭ and after that the mortifying tearsтАФin front of Sam Hall!тАФrolling hot and stinging on her dry skin,
spraying outward when she swiped at her dripping nose, turning pink where they fell on the bloody sheet
in her hands.

They talked about it only once. Sam Hall took her to Mass on Sunday, Mass at a reasonable 10:00
a.m., and he didn't assume the $5 he put in the collection plate was for both of them. Philippa liked that.
When women she hadn't seen since the funeral rushed up afterward to exclaim over her hands and gawk
at Sam, he took Philippa firmly by the elbow and guided her back towards his truck. After church came
a movie in Carter Falls, a thing neither of them found funny, about people chasing and killing each other
over something that fit inside a computer. The movie was redeemed by a drive by the lake on an
afternoon bursting with lilacs. Then came a dinner at the Apple Tree in Carter Falls, and another one with
Sam's grown daughter home from college in Plattsburgh. The daughter never mentioned Philippa's hands.
Another movie, only this one was funny, another dinner out, a political picnic for John Crane, who had
gone to school with Philippa and Sam and Jim and now was running for county sheriff. And all those
weeks they talked about it only once, in Sam's truck, parked in Philippa's driveway just before she went
inside and he started the long drive back to town.

Philippa said abruptly out of one of their long comfortable silences, тАЬDo you believe in aliens?тАЭ The word
sounded foolish there in the cab of the pick-up, so she added, тАЬLike in the movies?"

тАЬNope,тАЭ Sam said.

тАЬGhosts?"
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тАЬNo."

тАЬAngels?"

тАЬIn Bible times."

тАЬNot now?"

тАЬNo."

Philippa nodded. тАЬI wanted to be a nun, after Jim died. Can you imagine? I got books to study, and I
wrote to the convent at Plattsburgh."

тАЬWhat did they say?"

тАЬThey said they were a teaching order, and I wasn't a teacher."

Sam slapped at a mosquito above his collar. A moth lit on the windshield: ghostly pale wings translucent
in the light from the porch. He said, тАЬPeople do weird things sometimes. From loneliness."