"Dean Wesley Smith - The Last Garden In Time's Window" - читать интересную книгу автора (Smith Dean Wesley)

I looked in shock at my grandfather who only raised an eyebrow and then went back to eating.
Dirk had been an apprentice of my grandfather? My mind was reeling.
"So have a bite to eat," Grandma said, patting my hand as she used to do when I was a young boy.
I eased a wonderful-tasting bite of cherry pie into my mouth and tried to get my thoughts in order. I
still wasn't really believing that any of this was more than my mind making up what I wanted to feel and
hear.
"So ask them your question, apprentice," Dirk said, "and you can get back to Arizona and back to
your studies."
I looked at Dirk for a moment, trying to understand what question he meant, then it hit me. I looked
at Grandma, then Grandpa. "Why did you die?"
Grandpa chuckled.
"Do we look dead to you, dear?" Grandma asked, smiling at me.
"I buried you this morning," I said, the images of those two caskets clear in my mind.
"You buried our bodies, dear," Grandma said.
"Nice funeral, too," Grandpa said, then took another bite of pie.
"We're right here, same as always," Grandma said.
"But what if this is all just part of my imagination?" I asked.
Again they all three chuckled, clearly understanding something about my question that I did not.
And not understanding was making me more and more frustrated.
"Apprentice," Dirk said, "would it make a difference?"
"Yes," I said, disgusted at the question.
"Really?" Dirk said, pushing his empty pie plate away and facing me directly. Every time he did that,
I knew I was in for a lesson. "When you were in Seattle, did you see your grandparents every day?"
"Of course not," I said. "But they were alive and I couldтАФ"
Dirk held up his hand for me to stop. "You could not see them or touch them, could you? They
lived only in your memory when you were in Seattle. Correct?"
"But I could go see them, or call them."
"And what are you doing now, apprentice?" Dirk asked.
"Giving himself a hell of a headache," Grandpa said, then chuckled.
Dirk laughed as well.
"There is much to understand about your magic, dear," Grandma said. "And much to understand
about life, both in the living and the dying. You will learn."
"I will see you in Scottsdale tomorrow," Dirk said.
With that the pain smashed through my head and I found myself slouched on my grandparents' bed.
I lay there, hoping the pain would ease before I died. Slowly the pounding was replaced with a dull ache.
But it was the ache of missing the two people I had cared most about in the world. I would never
again come to this trailer to talk with them, and I didn't believe in my own magic enough to really believe
what I had just seen had reality to it.
I moved over into the center of the bed, so that I wouldn't be lying in either of their places. In the
morning I would go back to Arizona and work with Dirk to figure out what had been real, what had been
magic, and what had been a dream.
But for now I belonged here, where they had lived and died.
I closed my eyes and let my memories of them flood back in naturally.
And for the moment, that was as it should be.