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

"Yes. What needs to be done, needs to be done in a

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place of power. Such are the ways of ritual." He joined me at the table.
"I have to tell you certain things to aid you in making your decision.
Whatever happens, know that Amy's and Tommy's future health and
happiness are safe."

He reached down to flip the first of four latches on the case. "The
first time a stranger approached you with a story, you were seven years
old. It was an elderly woman who was in tears because she'd lost a cameo
her late husband had gotten for her overseas during World War One. You
sat there on your bike and listened to her and then you said-do you
remember this?"

I nodded. "She said she always wore it so she could feel him near. She
talked about how he'd loved her homemade strawberry preserves, how she
still made a batch every year to give as Christmas presents. This was
three weeks before Christmas. I asked her if she'd already made her
preserves and she said yes. I knew right away that the cameo's clasp had
come loose from the necklace. It had fallen into one of the preserve
jars. I didn't tell her that, though."

"No, but you did ask the right questions so she could figure it out. Do
you know what would have happened if that woman hadn't approached you?
She would have taken her own life New Year's Eve. This was a dangerously
depressed gal, Joel, one who'd been the focus of her childrens' worry
since the death of her husband. You saved her life that day."

"No..."

"Oh, yes. And since that day, because you have 'one of those faces,'
people keep coming up to you, don't they? Asking for directions, spare
change, if you know a good restaurant... or to tell you things. Rami
Temporalis, the

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face beneath the flesh. That is what draws them to you. They recognize
it in you just as you can recognize the face of Jesus or Shakespeare,
because regardless of how many variations there might be, the face
beneath the flesh-the First Face, the one you had before your
grandparents were born-remains unchanged." He opened the case and laid
it flat. From one end to the other it was at least four feet wide and
three across, perhaps two feet deep.

Something wasn't right. I'd seen this thing closed, had tried to lift
it, and though it weighed a ton there was nothing to suggest it would be
this wide, long, or deep when opened.