"Parick O'Leary - The Witch's hand" - читать интересную книгу автора (O'leary Patrick)

point of living forever if you were always in danger?

"Anyway," Jimmy continued, "the hand has one day every year when it can roam the earth looking for the
knight."

Okay, so there were rules. "One day?"

"Yeah."

"What's it do the rest of the year?"

"It waits."

"That's stupid! What if he sailed to London? How would it ever catch up?"

"He did. So the hand grabbed hold of an eel and it swam her across the British Channel."

The boys imagined a squirming green eel with sharp teeth; its jaws clamped shut by the fingers of a white
hand that wouldn't release it until it had made the crossing. And even then you would still feel the eel
scum on your fingers.

"It can do that?"

"It can do anything. It's smart."

It became a problem they could analyze in depth like how would you survive a flood (climb up on the
roof and bring a sandwich) or how many bananas can you eat before you blow up (between 14 and 18)
or why does anyone ever get married to girls (they had no idea).

"Well, it's simple then. You just keep moving."

"Yeah, move so the hand never finds you. Never stop."

"But the hand never stops either. It crawls as far as it can from midnight to midnight. And then it waits a
year before it moves again. But it won't stop. It'll never stop until it finds the knight."

"Does it ever forget where it's going?"

"Nope."

"Or who it's going for?"

"Nope."

"How's it know where to go?"

"It's magic."

Maybe it was the combination of words: "Magic" and "Smart." But it finally occurred to them how
powerful and dangerous the hand was, and they asked the question they were avoiding.