"Henry Kuttner - Call Him Demon " - читать интересную книгу автора (Kuttner Henry)

suddenlyтАФgone. Jane stepped forward, and stopped as a sound came from downstairs.
'fane!' Aunt Bessie's voice, 'fane!' It was louder and more peremptory now. 'Jane, where are you? Come here to me!'
Jane stood motionless, looking across the plank bridge. It was quite empty, and there was no trace of Emily or the other children.
The attic was suddenly full of invisible menace. Yet she would have gone on, because of her promise, ifтАФтАФ
'fane!'
Jane reluctantly descended and followed the summons to Aunt Bessie's bedroom. That prim-mouthed woman was pinning fabric
and moving her lips impatiently.
'Where on earth have you been, Jane? I've been calling and calling.'
'We were playing,' Jane said. 'Did you want me, Aunt Bessie?'
'I should say I did,' Aunt Bessie said. 'This collar I've been crocheting. It's a dress for you. Come here and let me try it on. How
you grow, child!'
And after that there was an eternity of pinning and wriggling, while Jane kept thinking of Emily, alone and afraid somewhere in
the attic. She began to hate Aunt Bessie. Yet the thought of rebellion or escape never crossed her mind. The adults were absolute
monarchs. As far as relative values went, trying on the collar was more important, at this moment, than anything else in the world.
At least, to the adults who administered the world.
While Emily, alone and afraid on the bridge that led toтАФelsewhere. . . .
The uncles were playing poker. Aunt Gertrude, the vaudeville actress, had unexpectedly arrived for a few days and was talking
with Grandmother Keaton and Aunt Bessie in the living-room. Aunt Gertrude was small and pretty, very charming, with bisque
delicacy and a gusto for life that filled Jane with admiration. But she was subdued now.
'This place gives me the creeps,' she said, making a dart with
her folded fan at Jane's nose. 'Hello, funny^face. Why aren't you playing with the other kids?'
'Oh, I'm .tired/ Jane said, wondering about Emily. It had been nearly an hour sinceтАФтАФ
'At your age I was never tired,' Aunt Gertrude said. 'Now look at me. Three a day and that awful straight man I've gotтАФMa, did I
tell youтАФтАФтАФ' The voices pitched lower.
Jane watched Aunt Bessie's skinny fingers move monotonously as she darted her crochet hook through the silk.
'This place is a morgue,' Aunt Gertrude said suddenly.. 'What's wrong with everybody? Who's dead?'
'It's the air,' Aunt Bessie said. 'Too hot the year round.' 'You play Rochester in winter, Bessie my girl, and you'll be glad of a warm
climate. It isn't that, anyway. I feel likeтАФmm-m тАФit's like being on stage after the curtain's gone up.' 'It's your fancy,' her mother
said.
'Ghosts,' Aunt Gertrude said, and was silent. Grandmother Keaton looked sharply at Jane. 'Come over here, child,' she said.
Room was made on the soft, capacious lap that had held so many youngsters.
Jane snuggled against the reassuring warmth and tried to let her mind go blank, transferring all sense of responsibility to
Grandmother Keaton. But it wouldn't work. There was something wrong in the house, and the heavy waves of it beat out from a
center very near them.
The Wrong Uncle. Hunger and the avidity to be fed. The nearness of bloody meat tantalizing him as he lay hidden in his strange,
unguessable nest elsewhereтАФotherwhereтАФin that strange place where the children had vanished.
He was down there, slavering for the food; he was up here, empty, avid, a vortex of hunger very nearby.
He was double, a double uncle, masked but terrifyingly clear. ...
Jane closed her eyes and dug her head deeper into Grandmother Keaton's shoulder.
Aunt Gertrude gossiped in an oddly tense voice, as if she sensed wrongness under the surface and was frightened subtly.
'I'm opening at Santa Barbara in a couple of days, Ma,' she said. 'IтАФwhat's wrong with this house, anyhow? I'm as jumpy as a cat
today!тАФand I want you all to come down and catch the first show. It's a musical comedy. I've been promoted.'
'I've seen the "Prince of Pilsen" before,' Grandmother Keaton said.
'Not with me in it. It's my treat. I've engaged rooms at the hotel already. The kids have to come, too. Want to see your auntie act,
Jane?' Jane nodded against her grandmother's shoulder.
'Auntie,' Jane said suddenly. 'Did you see all the uncles?'
'Certainly I did.'
'All of them? Uncle James and Uncle Bert and Uncle Simon and Uncle Lew?'
'The whole kaboodle. Why?'
'I just wondered.'