"Jerry Oltion - The Miracle" - читать интересную книгу автора (Oltion Jerry)

They stopped a dozen feet or so away and watched the bush crackle and spit
sparks.

"It's not fire," Tom pointed out. "It looks more like some kind of electrical
discharge."

"Smells like it, too," Dan said. "Isn't that ozone?"

Tom nodded. "Static electricity used to build up on sailing ships and sparks
would shoot from the masts and stuff. They used to call it Saint Elmo's Fire."

"This isn't a sailing ship," Brian said. "It's a sign from God."

Doug and Tom -- and even Greg now that he had some support--chuckled at Brian's
earnestness, but their laughter died pretty quickly. Everyone just stood there
in a tight pack before the bush, waiting to see what would happen next. For a
group of college guys around a fire, they were awfully quiet.

The flame -- or static discharge, or whatever it was -- began dying down. At
last Tom, a botany student, stepped closer and peered into the crackling blue
aurora. "I think it's a wild huckleberry," he said.

"Often noted for spontaneous combustion," Dan said in a mock-instructor voice.

"Not a hawthorn?" Brian asked wistfully.

"Sorry." Tom had longer hair than the others; wisps of it drifted upward as he
stood by the bush. The mysterious fire was going out, though, and his hair began
to lie flat again. The bush flickered for another minute or so, growing
gradually dimmer until the flames could no longer be seen. Tom crouched down and
reached out gingerly to touch it, but Brian said, "Don't!"

"Why not?"

"It's...not right."

"Oh, come on." Tom steadied himself with one hand against the rock, and yelped
when his fingers touched the ground. "I definitely got a shock there," he said.
His hair stuck out again.

"God doesn't want you to --"

"God doesn't give a shit," Tom said, and he grasped the bush with his other
hand.

Nothing happened.
Greg let out a sigh. He'd been glad to have his story proven true, but he didn't
want anybody to get hurt over it. "So what do you suppose is going on here.7" he
asked.