"Utley, Steven - The Despoblado" - читать интересную книгу автора (Utley Steven)

Walton gave Wicket an expectant look and said, "Will you please read from your book now?"

The big man softly cleared his throat and began to read aloud. He had a surprisingly sweet voice; he read with passable enunciation and made a respectable attempt at inflection. "Fanny had the pleasure of seeing Edmund continue at the window with her, in spite of the expected glee, and of having his eyes soon turned like hers toward the scene without, where all that was solemn and soothing, and lovely, appeared in the brilliancy of an unclouded night, and the deep shade of the woods. 'Here's harmony!' said she. 'Here's repose! Here's what may leave all painting and all music behind, and what poetry can only attempt to describe. Here's what may tranquilize every care, and lift the heart to rapture! When I look out on such a night as this, I feel as if there could be neither wickedness nor sorrow in the world; and there certainly would be less of both if the sublimity of Nature were more attended to, and people were carried more out of themselves by contemplating such a scene.' "

Michelle laughed her good laugh and said, "Whoa!"

Walton regarded him with wonder. "What are you reading from?" Wicket shyly held the book out to him. "Mansfield Park. Jane Austen. Jesus Christ. You are such a romantic."




╖ ╖ ╖ ╖ ╖


The barge moved with the current and put in at each of the camps previously visited to take on crates of specimens. The landscape smoothed itself out, and the river slowed and began to meander. In the amber light of a late afternoon, they approached the oil geologists' camp and saw gouged and furrowed marl along the bank. Its yellow sides caked with mud, the vibrator truck sat dormant amid a crazy pattern of treadmarks. There was no sign of the men. Walton reached for the whistle cord, then withdrew his hand. To Michelle, who stood leaning against the pilot house, he said, "Might be taking their naps."
"Looks like they've been cutting doughnuts."

"What else is there for them to do for fun around here?"

"Maybe they've been celebrating. Maybe they've found what they were looking for. Are we going ashore now?"

Walton shook his head. "Not unless you want to."

"I don't want to."

"Then not till we have to."


The End

Special thanks to Jessica Reisman and her pals.