"Perry, Steve - OtherToys" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

STEVE PERRY - Other Toys

THE FEAR SITS IN MY BELLY like a lump of rock from the bottom of the sea, cold,
icy, indigestible, stretching my bowel, weighing me down. Worse than pain, worse
than death, worse than anything-- the thought that God has forsaken me clutches
at me with claws so sharp they pierce to my very soul, causing my essence to
spew forth like a fount of spiritual blood.

God has forsaken me. I am doomed.

Doomed.

What could I have done? What vile act could be worth this, this the ultimate
curse? Surely I am a sinner, never have I claimed otherwise, but surely my
crimes have been in the doing of small sins, never drawing near the murky swamp
of heresy, never veering from True Devotion, nary a misstep from The Path. This
I can attest to, this I can affirm, for in my heart I know. I am not -- never--
have I felt moved to the slightest apostasy; always have I kept the Faith,
always, by my life . . . and yet --

And yet, God no longer answers my prayers. I am abandoned and the thought of
never feeling His light upon my worthless self again tears asunder my being.
Please, my Lord, forgive me for my errors! In Your infinite mercy, pity me, for
I do not know what I have done to deserve this, the worst of all punishments.

Please!

If he hadn't been on vacation, John Cartas would never have noticed the piece.
The article in the paper was short, a filler, really, buffed in the back pages
under the ad for tires and the new woman sportswriter's column. In what the city
editor called the "Science Section," trying to keep a straight face while he
said it. No byline. They either pulled it off the wire or had one of the drones
hack it out:

*
ANNA-BY-THE-SEA -- A team of visiting paleontologists from the University of
Arizona have made what one representative terms "an amazing discovery" in a cave
near the town of Anna-by-the-Sea.

*
According to Professor Peter Lipton, head of the team, the searchers have
uncovered the remains of a new and unique dinosaur.

*
"It appears to be the entire skeleton," Lipton said, "we've never seen anything
quite like it before."

*
Lipton's team hopes to complete the excavation of the dinosaur before winter