"Lisa Tuttle & Steven Utley - In the Hole" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tuttle Lisa)

He walked slowly around the house, into the backyard where he had
met her so many times, to the tree where, in the orange light of a long-ago
afternoon, he had carefully carved heath loves cara into the wood while she
sat in the grass at his feet and told him, тАЬForever. Put forever.тАЭ

The tree still stood there, apparently thriving, and in the overgrown
grass beneath it sat a young woman, and she was still Cara. The years had
not changed her as they had changed him. She still wore her long fair hair in
a braid draped over her shoulder. He wondered how he must look to her,
and he touched his face, recalling the ashen, shrunken features of the old
man who stared back at him from a mirror in a hospital bathroom.

But something flared in her eyes at the sight of him, and with a swift,
sweet smile she jumped up and threw her arms around him. тАЬOh, Heath!
Finally! IтАЩve been waiting for days, wondering when youтАЩd get here!тАЭ

Her weight knocked him backтАФshe must have outweighed him by
twenty poundsтАФand he might have fallen except that she held him so
tightly.

тАЬIтАФIтАЩve missed you,тАЭ he murmured, a little breathless, but that was
wrong, he immediately thought, I shouldnтАЩt have said that. How could he
miss her when he was always aware of her presence, keeping him alive?

She let go of him and stepped back with an odd little laugh, and he
guessed she sensed the falseness in his words. He felt ashamed, fearful
that he had hurt her, especially as she would not meet his gaze. тАЬIтАЩm
sorryтАФтАЭ

тАЬOh, stop! Since when do we need platitudes between us?тАЭ Finally
her eyes rested on his face. She looked him slowly up and down, and bit
her lip. тАЬYou lookтАФoh, dearтАФyou havenтАЩt been well, poor darling.тАЭ

He nodded, not knowing what to say. In the hole, there had been no
need for words. She had come to him when he needed her, and there was
never any strangeness or misunderstanding.

She took hold of his hand. тАЬCome inside. Are you hungry? I made
cookies and lemonade. It looks to me like you need feeding up.тАЭ

His answering smile felt stiff on his face, but he walked up to the
house with her, hand in hand as in the past. He sat at the kitchen table and
waited as she got a pitcher of lemonade from the refrigerator and a
covered plate of oatmeal cookies from the pantry. He remembered that she
had made lemonade and oatmeal cookies on the day he went away; they
had sat here at the same table, she too sad to eat or drink, he too excited.

Although he felt no hungrier now than then, he bit into a cookie,
watching while she did the same. His first impression of her had been
wrong; she had changed. She had been a girl when he left, and now she