"Patricia A. McKillip - The Old Woman and the Storm" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKillip Patricia A)

"The woman I love is not very beautiful either," he said, seeing her face in his mind. "She is very thin, and
her nose is long and crooked. When she was younger, the other children called her 'Crane' because she
grew so tall and thin she stooped." He paused to swallow, no longer caring if the Old Woman was
listening, for he wanted to spend those last moments with his love. "She thought no one in the world
would ever love her. But I did. She was light, like a bird, and shy like a wild thing, and full of funny
movements. When I told her I loved her, though, she didn't believe me. She thought I was making fun of
her and she hit me. The second time I told her, she threw a pot at me. So I had a sore ear and a sore
shin. I went down to the river and sat wondering what I was doing wrong." He heard an odd, creaky
sound, but he was too engrossed in his memories to wonder at it. "I decided to bring her all the beautiful
things I could find and pile them at her door. I brought her flowers. I brought her bright snake skins. I
brought her feathers, colored leaves, sparkling stones. I fell on my head out of trees collecting speckled
eggs for her; I roasted myself in the desert to find purple lizards for her. And you know what she did with
all those treasures? She threw them, she walked on them, she gave them away├Сevery single thing.
Finally, one day, I brought her the fattest fish I had ever caught, all roasted and ready for her to eat├Сand
she burst into tears. I didn't know what to do. I wanted to cry. I wanted to pull her hair. I wanted to
shake her until her teeth rattled. I put my hands on her shoulders, and a madness came over me, and I
kissed her so long we both ran out of breath and fell on the floor. And when I looked at her, she was
smiling." He paused. "Like you are now." He laughed himself at the memory, and at the shining in the Old
Woman's face. "Look at you. You look just like her. Look-" His breath caught. He stared out at the
quiet sky, at the blazing colors that arched from one end of the world to the other. The Old Woman's
smile. He stood up, watching it, marveling, his face a lover's face, until the smile melted like pipe smoke,
and the Sun burned away the clouds.

He went back home. His tall, shy, crooked-nosed love saw him as she filled the water-skins, and came
to meet him, smiling He took the skins from her; she tucked her hand in his arm.

"Where have you been?"

"For a walk."

"What did you see?"

"A rock. A shadow. A rainbow."