"Christopher Moore - Cat's Karma" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore Christopher)

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Chang woke before dawn and immediately shook his head to try to clear the memory of the strange
dream. He was surprised that he did not feel the awful grief that he had felt before. Perhaps the dream
was his reward, he thought, for all the hard work he had done in his life. The cat woman had warmed
him as Ling-Ling had, and loved him like Mesong. It was a strange and wonderful thing to happen, he
thought, but still I miss my wife and my cat. Then he noticed that the silk wedding pillow that he and
Mesong had slept on was rent to shreds, and he was at once afraid and delighted. He decided to take his
boat out.
As he walked through the waking village he was stopped by one of the other fishermen.
"Chang, did you hear? Did you hear?"
"Hear what?" Chang asked.
"They found the fish merchant dead this morning. He was torn to bits by some kind of animal, a tiger
perhaps."
"Karma," was all Chang said, with a bit of a smile. Then he took his little boat out to sea.
From then on Chang took his boat out each morning early, and returned late at night. He inherited
Kwok's fleet and became prosperous, but he continued to work hard. He never took another wife and the
villagers again talked of his strangeness, for he never showed signs of being lonely. He still took the best
of his catch home, usually enough to feed a whole family. They were sure that he must have another cat,
perhaps several, because each night they heard long cat-like screams coming from Chang's little house
and they listened in curious wonder, because sometimes the cat screams sounded like those of a woman.

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