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

door. She entered and walked to the rear seat under the window. Snow whirled around the back of the
bus; cold penetrated through the windows.
Shaking her head, Judith returned to the driver's seat and stared through the windshield. A blob of black
was racing toward them across the sunny grass. It yowled, and the cat, her cat, Judith almost thought,
responded. Judith was quite beyond astonishment, so when the blob became a large black cat she merely
continued to watch. The two cats greeted each other with an enthusiastic abandon that culminated in the
big one giving the small one a thorough bath. New mama or not, her mama wanted to show how glad she
was to see hcr offspring. Judith cupped her chin in her palms and launed forward on her elbows to
watch. She felt wonderful; relieved and happy and wanted and safe and loved.
She felt even better ten minutes later. The big black cut bounded over the rectangular stone as if she
would not have used it for a litter box. Turning, she made a second leap that landed her at Judith's side.
Purring so loudly that the windows rattled, the cat butted the top of her head into Judith's middle.
That's love, Judith thought, stunned. Not rub-the-side-of-the-jaw-along what you're claiming, but the
highest compliment a cat can pay. She had wondered if she should be a little afraid. The older cat wasn't
quite the size of an ocelot, more long-tailed bobcat size, and gave the general impression of being a
domesticated animal. But it was no tame tabby. Moving slowly, she brought her hands over and rubbed
the top of the cat's head. It purred even louder.
"Silk!" Judith exclaimed. The cat's fur was so exquisIte to the touch that she could think of no other
comparison.
The cat pulled back, looked at her, and nodded. Nodded
"Your name is Silk?" Judith ventured. The cat nodded again.
"Judith Justin," she murmured. Silk licked her hand once.
If she was going to have a conversation with a cat, she must find a topic of interest to both of them.
"Have you seen the babies?"
Silk was out of the Bookmobile so rapidly one might have thought her to disappear. Together, Judith and
Silk admired Feather's babies.
This time when somebody chuckled, Judith looked up, smiling. The man was big and bearded and about
her age, and he was dressed as nobody dressed where she came from, nor had for several hundred
years, and he smelled distinctly of horse and sweat, but he reached out to help her to her feet, shook her
hand in a perfectly normal manner, and greeted her in k?nglish.
"The name's Tregarth," he said. "Call me Symon. It's a well-known name here, though I'm by no means
the first to wear it."
"Judith Justin," Judy replied.
"Librarian," Simon added. "That is a Bookmobile, isn't it?"
Judith nodded, nonplussed.
The man shook his head slowly. "What a surprise that must have been," he said softly, "when they were
expecting the Puma."
"The Puma?" Judith asked.
"Suppose you turn off the engine and join us over there." The man waved toward a low hill that seemed
to have sprouted several people. "We wanted to wait until you'd sorted yourself out. But food and drink
are in order now, aren't they?" He grinned. "And explanations-at least as many as we can give."
Judith nodded, swallowed, and got out, "Very much so. Do you have anything a cat can eat?"
He chuckled again. "Several things," he said.
After all the explanations that could be made had been made, and Silk and the people had returned to
their domiciles, after the blizzard had blown itself out, and Judith had removed the screws and hinges
from the rear door of the bus so that it could be moved, Judith sat on the bus steps with Feathers and the
kittens on her lap. Either the grass or the seats in the Bookmobile would have been more comfortable,
but she felt in transition, neither here nor there, neither real nor not-real. She grinned. "Halfway down the
stairs is a stair where I sit," she quoted Milne to the uninterested cat. "There isn't any other stair quite like
it."