"Pat Murphy - Bones" - читать интересную книгу автора (Murphy Pat)

BONES
Pat Murphy
This is a true story, more or less. In the history books, you can find Dr. John
Hunter, a noted surgeon and naturalist. London's Royal College of Surgeons
maintains his museum, an amazing collection of eighteenth-century oddities and
natural curiosities.
Charlie Bryne is in the history books, too. He came to London from Ireland in
1782. Advertised as the World's Tallest Man and the Descendant of Irish Kings, he
exhibited himself as a curiosity and a freak.
The history books tell of their meetingтАФbut now I'm getting ahead of myself. I
must start long before that.
On a cold winter evening, when the ground was white with frost, Charlie Bryne sat
on a stool by the peat fire. Though the boy was only ten years old, he was already as
tall as a grown man. His mother, a youthful widow, sat close by, her shawl pulled up
around her shoulders and a glass of whiskey in her hand. The firelight shone on her
face, making her cheeks rosy and her eyes bright.
"Tell me the story, Mum," Charlie asked. "Tell me how I got to be so big."
She smiled at him fondly. "Ah, you know the tale as well as I do, Charlie. You
have no need forme to tell it."
"I've forgotten. Tell me again," he pleaded.
"All rightтАФjust once more. Fill my glass and we'll have the story." He refilled her
glass from the jug and she settled herself more comfortably in her chair.
"It was a year after a young horse threw my husband and broke his back," she
began. "I was a widow with a fine farm, and many a bachelor farmer would gladly
have had me to wife. But I was happy to be on my lone, and I would have none of
them." She pushed back her dark hair with her hand, smiling at the memory. "Old
Sean Dermot died that autumn, and I went to the wake. As it came about, I stayed
too late, and I was walking home after dark. 'Twas a lonesome road I had to
travelтАФI was tired, so I took a short cut, the path that ran beside the Giant's
Boneyard."
She shook her head at her own foolishness. The Giant's Boneyard was a lonely,
haunted spot. In a field too rocky for planting, wild grasses grew thick and green
around great boulders of unusual shapes. People said that the boulders were the
bones of a giant, a king of Ireland who had died a hundred years before, while
fighting to protect his people from invaders. Some said that he had promised, with
his dying words, to return if ever Ireland needed him. Some said he walked at night,
strolling through the field that held his bones. In any case, most people avoided the
place after dark.
"The moon was a sliver in the sky, hanging low and giving just enough light for
me to see. I was only halfway across the field when I saw a blue light, a beautiful
light, the color of the Blessed Virgin's robes. I was not foolish enough to go running
after fairy lanterns. I kept to the path, hurrying home, but the light danced across the
field toward me. And then I saw it clearly."
She clasped her hands before her, and leaned toward Charlie. He caught his
breath, watching her. "The blue light shone from a golden crown on the head of an
enormous man. A powerful manтАФstronger than the blacksmith in the village, taller
than the tallest I had ever seen. He was handsome, but his eyes were dark and fierce.
When he looked at me, I froze, bound to the spot and unable to run."
She fixed her gaze on Charlie, as if to show him how it felt, and he shivered. "He
spoke to me sweetly, saying that I would bear him a son. His son would have the old