"Laura Resnick - Fluff the Tragic Dragon" - читать интересную книгу автора (Resnick Laura)

"The dragon in the basement?" I repeated. "Do you mean a member of one
of those gangs, like the Pell Street Dragons or something?"
"No, no, not a gangster. A large, fire-breathing lizard with wings. You
know." She made a bizarre attempt to demonstrate by imitation. "A _dragon_."
"In the basement," I said.
"Living down there, on a level below the laundry room, in caverns of
primordial darkness and gloom."
"A dragon? Living below the laundry room? What makes you think that?" I
asked, as if there could be a good reason.
"He spoke to me."
"Indeed?"
"Yes. My quarter rolled under the stairs. When I followed it, I found
an old, rusty, dusty door built into the wall. I thought my quarter must have
rolled into the crack under the door, so naturally I pried it open."
"Naturally." Prying has always come naturally to Mrs. Pearl.
"There's a series of steep iron stairs behind the door." She lowered
her voice, and it took on a dramatic intensity I might have admired in other
circumstances. "I started down the steps, and then..."
Hey, I'm an actress, I know a cue when I hear one. "What happened
then?"
"I heard a voice coming from far below me, from the bowels of the very
earth it seemed."
"Uh-huh." Subway tunnel, no doubt.
"I said, 'Who's there?'"
"And lo, there came a voice."




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 "Yes!"
"Really?" A homeless person, perhaps? "What did it say?"
"I'm not sure. It was sort of muffled."
"I see."
"So I descended another step."
"Wait a minute! Are you nuts, Mrs. Pearl? You don't want to mess around
in old tunnels in this city. You could have been hurt."
"And as I continued downward, step by step, becoming enveloped in
darkness -- "
"Good God."
"Suddenly, there was a great heaving sound, and then a burst of fire
shot across the ceiling of this cavern -- "
"I'm calling the police," I said firmly, trying to push past her. "We
could all be murdered while sorting our colors."
She got a good stranglehold on me and kept talking. "And I saw his
shape outlined in the darkness, highlighted by the fire pouring from his
nostrils."
"What?"
"He had a great lizard-like head, with square nostrils and tiny,
pointed ears, a long, serpentine body, an enormous tail, vestigial wings,