"Maureen McHugh - Ancestor Money" - читать интересную книгу автора (McHugh Maureen F)

Ancestor Money
by Maureen F. McHugh


In the afterlife, Rachel lived alone. She had a clapboard cabin and a yard full of gray geese which she
could feed or not and they would do fine. Purple Morning Glories grew by the kitchen door. It was
always an early summer morning and had been since her death. At first, she had wondered if this were
some sort of Catholic afterlife. She neither felt the presence of God nor missed his absence. But in the
stasis of this summer morning, it was difficult to wonder or worry, year after year.

The honking geese told her someone was coming. Geese were better than dogs, and maybe meaner. It
was Speed. "Rachel?" he called from the fence.

She had barely known Speed in lifeтАФhe was her husband's uncle and not a person she had liked or
approved of. But she had come to enjoy his company when she no longer had to fear sin or bad
companions.

"Rachel," he said, "you've got mail. From China."

She came and stood in the doorway, shading her eyes from the day. "What?" she said.

"You've got mail from China," Speed said. He held up an envelope. It was big, made of some stiff red
paper, and sealed with a darker red bit of wax.

She had never received mail before. "Where did you get it?" she asked.

"It was in the mailbox at the end of the hollow," Speed said. He said "holler" for "hollow." Speed had a
thick brush of wiry black hair that never combed flat without hair grease.

"There's no mailbox there," she said.

"Is now."

"Heavens, Speed. Who put you up to this," she said.

"It's worse 'n that. No one did. Open it up."

She came down and took it from him. There were Chinese letters going up and down on the left side of
the envelope. The stamp was as big as the palm of her hand. It was a white crane flying against a gilt
background. Her name was right there in the middle in beautiful black ink.



Rachel Ball
b. 1892 d. 1927
Swan Pond Hollow, Kentucky
United States

Speed was about to have apoplexy, so Rachel put off opening it, turning the envelope over a couple of
times. The red paper had a watermark in it of twisting Chinese dragons, barely visible. It was an