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

"I didn't mean to do it!"

He was in his early thirties, dressed in clean khaki pants and work
boots, with a denim shirt and baseball cap. His face sported a vague
five-o'-clock shadow that told you he had, indeed, shaved that morning.
His blond hair was neatly combed and there was nothing about him to
suggest that he was either homeless or insane.

Except his eyes. To look in them as he spoke you would have thought he'd
swallowed a leathery chunk of pain.

13

There were perhaps half-a-dozen other people out there, but I knew at
once he would head toward me.

"I swear to God I didn't want to do it, I swear to God!" His gaze locked
on me. I found my change, pulled it with a shaking hand from my pocket,
and immediately dropped most of it on the sidewalk.

"I didn't mean to hurt her," he said, stopping right in front of me and
jamming his hands deep into his pockets. "They made me do it! They
always make me do it! I don't want to. She's so little. And she loves
all of us. She looks at me with those sweet eyes so full of trust and
then I have to ... to-I swear to God I don't want to do it, they make
me, you understand? They make me do it!"

Every inch of his body trembled with helpless rage. I stepped behind the
meter in case he exploded and got his crazy all over the street.

Tears formed in his eyes. "I don't want to do it anymore." His voice
broke on the last three words.
All I could think to say was: "How bad is she hurt now?"

"Not too bad this time. She was doing pretty well when I left. They
won't do anything to her, they never do. They-"

"-make you do it for them."

"Yes."

I wanted to run away but I couldn't. Listen might take offense and that
was the last thing I wanted.

"Can you take her places?" I asked.

He stopped trembling and looked in my eyes. "Uh-huh. I'm the only one
who ever does."

I tilted my head in the direction of City Hall at the end of the street.