"Richard Paul Russo - Butterflies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Russo Richard Paul)

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RICHARD PAUL RUSSO

BUTTERFLIES

THE HEAT WAS KILLING HIM. There was the chatter of monkeys, buzz of flies; a
long sharp caw. Water flowed somewhere nearby, falling over stones. Mason
stumbled out of the trees and into a clearing. A cloud of blue and white
butterflies rose from the moss at his feet, fluttering about his face,
momentarily blinding him. When the butterflies cleared away, he saw a hut on the
other side of the clearing. Mason was certain the hut hadn't been there a moment
ago.

He crossed the clearing, squinting against the glare and the heat of the sun.
Dead vines hung from the roof of the hut, trailed across the open doorway and
the single window. Mason climbed the two steps and pushed through the vines. The
hut was empty, and even hotter than outside.

Mason came back out of the hut. It was late afternoon, he was exhausted and
thirsty, and he wondered if he should search for the water he heard. Chances
were good it would be gone by the time he reached it, or it would turn out to be
something completely useless that just sounded like flowing water. Mason shook
his head, deciding no. He was too tired for that.

He moved around the hut to the side shaded from the sun and lay on the soft
carpet of thick, green moss, his back against the hut wall. The noise around him
steadily increased -- birds shrieked, animals snorted, insects cracked and
whirred. Something like the beat of drums vibrated up to him through the moss.
Mason closed his eyes and slept.

He did not know where he was, and only barely knew who he was. If he was still
on Earth, it was a part of Earth unlike any he had ever known or heard of--a
place where, it seemed, physical laws were regularly defied. He knew his name,
but almost nothing else about himself. His past was gone.

He did not know how to get it back.

When he woke it was morning. Mason lay on his back and gazed up at the sky above
him. A thick, orange haze obscured all signs of the sun; or perhaps the sun was
not yet high enough to be seen. The heat was already stifling. The sound of
flowing water was louder now, and his thirst had become painful.

He heard the crackling static of a radio. He glanced up at the roof, saw a long
thin antenna projecting from the peak. Now this is interesting, he thought. He

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