"Michael Swanwick - The Raggle Taggle Gypsy - O" - читать интересную книгу автора (Swanwick Michael)

He pushed Annie away from him so hard the back of her head bounced off the
rider-side window. The truck's front wheels went off the road. Empty sky swung up
to fill the windshield. In a frenzy, he swung the wheel so sharply he thought for a
second they were going to overturn. There was a hideous crunch that sounded like
part of the frame hitting rock, and then they were jolting safely down the road again.

"God damn," Crow said flatly. "Don't you ever do that again." He was shaking.
"You're fucking crazy!" he added, more emphatically.

"Your fly is unzipped," Annie said, amused.

He hastily tucked himself in. "Crazy."

"You want crazy? You so much as look at another woman and I'll show you crazy."
She opened the glove compartment and dug out her packet of Kents. "I'm just the
girl for you, boyo, and don't you forget it." She lit up and then opened the window a
crack for ventilation. Mentholated smoke filled the cabin.

In a companionable wordlessness they drove on through the snow and the blinding
sunlight, the cab warm, the motor humming, and the monsters screaming at their
back.

****

For maybe fifty miles he drove, while Annie drowsed in the seat beside him. Then
the steering got stiff and the wheel began to moan under his hands whenever he
turned it. It was a long, low, mournful sound like whale-song.

Without opening her eyes, Annie said, "What kind of weird-shit station are you
listening to? Can't you get us something better?"

"Ain't no radio out here, babe. Remember where we are."

She opened her eyes. "So what is it, then?"

"Steering fluid's low. I think maybe we sprung a leak back down the road, when we
almost went off."
"What are we going to do about it?"

"I'm not sure there's much we can do."

At which exact moment they turned a bend in the road and saw a gas station ahead.
Two sets of pumps, diesel, air, a Mini-Mart and a garage. Various machines of
dubious functionality rusting out back.

Crow slammed on the brakes. "That shouldn't be there." He knew that for a fact.
Last time he'd been through, the road had been empty all the way through to Troy.

Annie finally opened her eyes. They were the greenest things Crow had ever seen.
They reminded him of sunlight through jungle leaves, of moss-covered cathedrals, of