"Steve Perry - Black Bottom Bayou" - читать интересную книгу автора (Perry Steven)

"Shut up, Johnny," Harold said. "And sit still."

"I'm gonna tell Grandma Annabelle you said 'Shut up"!"

"Go ahead. You'll miss the story."

Johnny shut up.

"Anyway, they slept in the Piano Room, which had French doors that opened out on
the back yard, just like they do now. The yard ran straight to Black Bottom
Bayou, less than a hundred feet away, just like it does now. It was a summer
night, just like it is now and it was raining, and raining and..."

The rain came down in waves, hard, then soft, then hard again. The wind blew and
moaned softly at the edges of the house. When the lightning flashed, Billy and
Richie could see Black Bottom Bayou gurgling past, oily, sluggish and as dark as
its name. The frogs were going crazy. Every once in a while, Molly -- that was
Grandma Phyllis's three-legged pomeranian Molly would wake up and yip, but the
little dog's yappy bark didn't make the boys feel any better. When it came down
to it, Molly wouldn't be much help. She was afraid of Cisco and Pancho and they
were just parakeets.

"F** king stinking parakeets who sh*t on everything," Granddaddy Carl had said
more than a few times.

Billy clutched at his Red Ryder BB gun, the plastic stock slippery with sweat.
He wasn't supposed to load or cock it in the house but you better believe it was
loaded and cocked now. A whole pack of BBs in it. Richie was too little to have
a BB gun, which was too bad. Two guns would be better than one when the Monster
came. And if ever it was gonna come, this was the night for it.

"I'm scared," Richie said.

"Don't worry, I've got Old Betsy here." He patted the gun. BB's rattled inside
it. He'd named her after Davy Crockett's rifle. "If it tries to get in, I'll
shoot its eyes out."

"Wh-what if you miss ?"

"I won't miss. You remember that water moccasin? I hit it in the head, didn't I?
And that turtle? And those frogs? And that mockingbird? And you better not even
think about telling Grandma Phyllis about the bird."

"I won't tell, but -- a monster is different, Billy."

Billy nodded silently. Yeah, that was sure right. Ever since Grandma Phyllis had
dropped them off last week for the double-feature at the Paramount Theater while
she'd gone shopping, they'd been expecting to see it. Earth Versus the Flying
Saucers hadn't been so bad, but The Creature from the Black Lagoon, well, that
was something else. The flying saucers were in Washington, that was a million