"William Sleator - Interstellar Pig" - читать интересную книгу автора (Sleator William)

whole story?" I asked him. "They never found out why he killed the sailor?
Nobody knows why he made the scratch marks, or what they mean? How long ago
was it? Was he really there for twenty years?"

"Hey, don't you ever stop asking questions, kid?" Ted said, suddenly in a
hurry. "I got to see to the new tenants."

"What about that article you said was written about this place? Do you know
the name of it, or the author or anything?"

He shrugged and lifted his hands. "Never read it. Somebody just told me about
it once. Got to take care of your new neighbors now. Don't want them making
another fuss. Never heard three people so upset about not getting a summer
place, and at the

6 INTERSTELLAR PIG

last minute, too. Don't they know places on the beach get taken way ahead?
They were lucky to get the cottage when they wanted it. Kinda nutty
themselves, if you ask me." He let the screen door slam behind him and loped
across the wooden porch.

I waited a moment. Then, opening and shutting the door quietly, so I wouldn't
be noticed, I stepped outside.

I

he old gray shingled house we were renting sat on the top of a hill and faced
directly out toward the small island about a mile offshore. A fat orange sun
was sinking behind the island trees, and restless scribbles of gold danced
over the dark water. A mockingbird warbled aggressively from a stunted pine
that swayed in the evening wind.

A little gravel road sloped steeply down our scrubby front lawn and wandered
off toward a small private beach, several hundred yards to the right. The view
was almost perfect, for we were very isolatedтАФthe hill the captain had built
his house on was the only solid land in the midst of a velvety green salt
marsh, on which no houses could be built. Unfortunately, Ted's family had
added another house to the top of the hill, to increase the income from their
propertyтАФa squat cinder-block cube painted a revolting shade of pink, only ten
yards to our right. I kept out of sight behind one of the pillars of our porch
and watched a woman and two men emerge from the purple

7

6 INTERSTELLAR PIG

Volkswagen convertible parked between the houses.

"God, I thought we'd be in that brutal traffic all night!" the woman cried,