"David Marusek - The Earth Is On The Mend (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Marusek David)

The Earth Is On The Mend
by David Marusek
Asimov's Science Fiction, May 1993
тВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмтВмThe old man in the squirrel-pelt parka stopped to
pull
the club from his belt. The malemute, harnessed to the small sled,
stopped
behind him. The man stepped off the trail and wallowed through deep
snow
to the thicket of scrub willow. The dog, mindful of her traces, tamped
snow underfoot, made one tight circle, and lay down. Before she could
nap,
the man returned with a frozen snowshoe hare. "Three!" he said to the
dog.
"What does that mean, eh?" He scratched the dog behind an ear. "It
means
the Earth is on the mend, it does. And what does the dog say to that?"
The
dog stood up and wagged her tail. "I see," said the old man, "the dog
says
this time you'd better not piss it all away."
тВмтВмтВм
The next snare lay alongside the trail. The hare was still alive. It
huddled calmly at the end of its tight necklace. "Four," whispered the
old
man as he stepped slowly next to it. "Ah, little bunny," he crooned,
"we
came quick as we could." The hare stared with bright brown eyes. "And
what
does the bunny say?" The man raised his club. "The bunny says, 'I know;
I
know. Just do it.'"
тВмтВмтВм
Black spruce trees teetered drunkenly under the load of snow. The land
beneath the ridge lay in shadow. There, on the white expanse of a
frozen
lake, moved a black shape. "A moose?" said the old man. "Nah, dream
on."
He studied the shape's movements.
"A man!"
He led the dog down to a rocky promontory overlooking the lake, careful
not to break cover. He watched the man push a mound of snow off a
fishing
hole, chip away the new ice lens, and check the line. Empty. "It's a
fisherman who wears a bearskin parka," he told the dog. "Nice mukluks
too."
The next hole was near their hiding place, so the old man put his arm
around the dog's neck and stroked her muzzle. "I thought we checked
this
lake," he whispered into her ear. After a minute he added, "We did.