"Thomas F. Monteleone - Tales of Terror and Madness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Monteleone Thomas F)

EKG Tommy was having done today. For the last couple of years, my
nephew-who I love dearly-has been plagued by severe headaches. At first
it was thought he was suffering from allergies, but the medications
prescribed made him sick and irritable and unhappy. Another doctor's
visit revealed he needed adenoid surgery, so that was done and for a
little while the headaches stopped. But about two months ago they
returned with a vengeance-nausea, crying, wild moodswings, fear. Tommy
wants to draw comic books when he grows up. He's a small kid and gets
picked on a lot at

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school because he's not into sports and thinks girls are cool. This
morning his mother had taken him to the hospital for more tests because
the first set came back inconclusive. The thought of him dying broke me
in half. Though there's a lot in life I enjoy, I don't genuinely love
much in this world but my sister and my nephew.

But for the moment I was staring at a videotape of him lying in his
casket while Mom tried to look strong as Amy, shuddering, collapsed into
a nearby chair while her lout of an ex-husband stood off to the side
flirting with one of her friends from high school.

"The medical expenses will all but bankrupt her and she'll plunge into a
black depression that will end with her suicide the following
February-and right now there's nothing you can do about it."

Turning away from the suffering on the screen, I balled my hand into a
fist and felt a tear slip from my eye. "I don't know how you-"

-and my cell phone went off.

"You can always depend on your sister to be prompt," said Listen,
snapping closed his watch and slipping it back into his vest pocket.

I checked the display on the phone: beneath the number-which I did not
recognize-were the words: unknown caller.

"You have only to sit down and I can make it all go away," said Listen.
"This offer expires in thirty seconds. That isn't my choice, those are
the rules."

Panic and desperation are curious things. Enough of either impairs your
judgment; a gut full of both turns you into a marionette.

I sat down. My phone stopped beeping. The display was now blank, and
when I pressed the recall button, the

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