"Christopher Moore - The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove" - читать интересную книгу автора (Moore Christopher)

He stopped abruptly. "I'll be damned. Look at that." Estelle opened her
eyes and looked toward the waterline where Catfish was pointing. Some fish had
run up on the beach and were flopping around in the sand.
"You ever see anything like that?"
Estelle shook her head. More fish were coming out of the surf. Beyond the
breakers, the water was boiling with fish jumping and thrashing. A wave rose
up as if being pushed from underneath. "There's something moving out there."
Catfish picked up his shoes. "We gots to go."
Estelle didn't even think of protesting. "Yes. Now." She thought about
the huge shadows that kept appearing under the waves in her paintings. She
grabbed Catfish's shoes, jumped off the rock, and started down the beach to
the stairs that led up to a bluff where Catfish's station wagon waited. "Come
on."
"I'm comin!" Catfish spidered down the rock and stepped after her.
At the car, both of them winded and leaning on the fenders, Catfish was
digging in his pocket for the keys when they heard the roar. The roar of a
thousand phlegmy lions -- equal amounts of wetness, fury, and volume. Estelle
felt her ribs vibrate with the noise.
"Jesus! What was that?"
"Get in the car, girl."
Estelle climbed into the station wagon. Catfish was already fumbling the
key into the ignition. The car fired up and he threw it into drive, kicking up
gravel as he pulled away.
"Wait, your shoes are on the roof."
"He can have them," Catfish said. "They better than the ones he ate last
time."
"He? What the hell was that? You know what that was?"
"I'll tell you soon as I'm done havin this heart attack."


five

The Sea Beast

The great Sea Beast paused in his pursuit of the delicious radioactive
aroma and sent a subsonic message out to a gray whale passing several miles
ahead of him. Roughly translated, it said, "Hey, baby, how's about you and I
eat a few plankton and do the wild thing."
The gray whale continued her relentless swim south and replied with a
subsonic thrum that translated, "I know who you are. Stay away from me."
The Sea Beast swam on. During his journey he had eaten a basking shark, a
few dolphins, and several hundred tuna. His focus had changed from food to
sex. As he approached the California coast the radioactive scent began to
diminish to almost nothing. The leak at the power plant had been discovered
and fixed. He found himself less than a mile offshore with a belly full of
shark -- and no memory of why he'd left his volcanic nest. But there was a
buzz reaching his predator's senses from shore, the listless resolve of prey
that has given up: depression. Warm-blooded food, dolphins, and whales sent
off the same signal sometimes. A large school of food was just asking to be
eaten, right near the edge of the sea. He stopped out past the surf line and