"Nagle, Patti - Coyote Ugly" - читать интересную книгу автора (Nagle Pati)

she looked up at herself in the mirror and smiled. Set in her flat face her eyes
glowed with warm excitement; triumph of creation. Times like this were good, she
thought, drying her hands.

The front door creaked, then shut.

"Joe?"

No answer, TV still blaring. She went over and turned it off, picked up Joe's
dirty plate and beer can, put them on the counter and returned to her table. As
she sat she glanced up with a smile at Coyote.

He was gone.

With an anguished cry she jumped up, knocking over her chair as she ran for the
door. Yanking it open, she saw Joe halfway up the street, Coyote tucked under
his arm. He turned, saw her, ran.

"Joe!" she screamed. For a moment she stared in disbelief, then she snatched her
keys from the nail behind the door and slammed it behind her as she flew down
the steps and into the street. Joe was rounding the comer, heading for Agua Fria
Street. Eva tore after him as fast as she could. She reached the comer just in
time to see him turning east. The chill evening air burned her lungs as she
gasped it in. She followed.

As she started across the street a turning car shrieked its brakes at her. Eva
screamed back at it, then kept running, the driver's curses fading behind her
and her heart pounding.

Joe was leading her toward the plaza. The closer she got, the more people and
the fewer cars she met. Fiesta was beginning, and soon the plaza would be
swarming with pedestrians. The streets were already blockaded. Eva dreaded the
crowd where she might easily lose Joe. One dark head in a denim jacket looked
much like another.

She reached the southwest comer of the plaza and stood gasping, eyes searching
the crowd. At the far comer she spotted Joe, and forced her aching legs to run
again. He struck north, and Eva knew a moment's dread-- he was heading for the
gallery, and would reach it before her.

Then joy burst into her mind. The gallery was closed; Mrs. Rongier was treating
her best customers to a gourmet picnic in Fort Marcy Park, to watch Zozobra. Eva
would catch up with Joe at the gallery, and take Coyote back.

Brushing past tourists in festive colors and locals in their own fashion
statements, she hurried uphill. The light was fading fast and Eva could hear the
dull roar of many voices and a distant throb of mariachi music. She slipped onto
the twisted street that led to Alamosa Gallery and the crowd thinned suddenly.
Eva ran on.