"Andre Norton - Cat Fantastic" - читать интересную книгу автора (Norton Andre)

No, there wasn't. Never would be. Shouldn't have been. Shouldn't be. The poor bus was taking an
enormous strain. If she didn't move it one way or the other-if she could bring it into this world-it would
disintegrate, possibly lethally. She had to make a decision now. Back to books and not-real as the only
worth? Or forward to maybe?
Judith was no child. She knew that the maybe was ninety-five percent likely to be identical to the other
world's reality. Was five percent chance worth hoping for when one might have toothache and sinus
trouble and infections that, back there, were solvable?
Feathers stood up on her lap, looked at Judith as if she had suddenly become a week-old dead fish, and
picked up a kitten in her mouth. As well as possible, considering the circumstances, she climbed down
and stalked into the tall grass growling in a tone that clearly indicated her complete contempt.
Judith felt bereft, lost, dismayed, deserted. She cuddled the other kitten to her cheek and stood up. How
could she possibly feel as if she were losing her only friend? She had several close friends back there
through the snow. All she needed to do was to go back.
But she followed the cat.
"Wait a minute," she called. "I want to get a lot of things from the bus. Don't go. I'm coming. I'm going to
stay."
You idiot! she condemned herself. Talking to a cat us if it understood!
It did, and she knew it would. It came back and waited while she got her backpack and her sleeping
bag, her towels and her swimming suit, her harmonica and her guitar, her twenty-seven favorite books
(for which she wrote a note indicating they could use her uncollected salary to pay) and any number of
other things of possible usefulness in her new situation.
The cat sat behind the big stone and purred. "Okay. Wait for me. I'll be right back."
For the last time, Judy turned the key in the Bookmobile's ignition. The motor had great difficulty starting.
"Come on, old friend." Judith patted the dash. "Don't fail me now."
She shook her head. Now I'm talking to machines, she thought. But that was nothing new. She always
had.
Encouraged, the motor caught and, coughing in protest, came to life. Judy shifted into reverse and
backed the vehicle carefully. When the front bumper was just inside the edge of the marking stones, she
turned off the ignition, but she did not set the brakes.
She climbed up onto the roof, lay flat, and slid forward feet first. Her body barely fit under the top stone.
She wiggled her legs free and down, slithered over, and dropped off. Then she got up, set her back
against the front of the bus, and pushed.
When it moved back, she ran as hard as she could run and threw herself flat behind the stone block. The
Gate closed.
Things were most unusual for a considerable period of time. Judy lay curled around the cat and the
kittens until things settled back to normal-if this was what was to be normal for them from now on.
She stood up. Feathers left the kittens for a moment and leaped onto the stone to sit beside her.
They saw three stones, not four. Two stood upright, one flay here to shelter them. What had happened to
the lintel-stone would never be explained, Judy felt sure, but she wasn't interested. What did interest her
was that between the two upright stones she could see grass and sunshine and wildflowers and hear
birdsong and smell water. The anomaly had been removed, and the Gate ...
" `Gate of the Puma,' faff!" she stated, remembering Simon's explanation. "The Puma had nothing to do
with it." She stroked the feathery fur on the cat's head and neck. Feathers purred so loudly that Judith
wondered what people on the other side of the Gate would believe the rumble to be.
The cat looked up at her, then jumped down and sat by her kittens.
Judith's gaze shifted from the living kittens to the . three white shapes on the stone. A signature, she
thought: Deliberately, she refused to think what had caused the slick black soot that rain wouldn't wash
off.
"The Gate of the Kittens," she said softly.
She put everything she didn't plan to carry on the stone, covered it with her poncho and tucked the ends