"Aaron Wolfe - Invasion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Aaron)snow тАФeach of them four inches in front of the otherтАФ parallel to a second
set of holes two feet to the right of the first line. The marks were all identical, as if they had been stamped in the snow by a man's walking cane. Equidistant from both sets of holes and better than a yard in front of them, there was a pair of similar indentations, although each of these was as large across as the bottom of a standard water glass. It looked like this: Although I was rather well acquainted with the woods, I had never seen anything remotely like it before. If all of that were indeed a single print, the animal was quite large, certainly not a bird of any kind. "What is it, Dad?" Toby asked. He squinted up at me, his eyelashes frosted with snowflakes, his nose like a berry, the bill of his red cap fringed with ice. He was certain that I would have the answer. I said, "I don't really know." For an instant his disappointment in me was all too evidentтАФthen he quickly covered his feelings, changed his expression, broke into a tentative smile. That made me sad, for it was an indication that he understood Dad was still on shaky psychological ground and needed all the love and affection he could get. Otherwise, Dad might end up in the hospital again, staring at the walls and not talking and not at all like Dad should be. "Can we follow it?" Toby asked. "Ahh, heck." "Your nose is as red as a stoplight." "I'm tough," he said. "I know you are. I wouldn't argue about that. But your mother is expecting us about now." I pointed to the rapidly vanishing set of prints. "Besides, the wind and snow will have these filled in within a few minutes. We couldn't track them very far." He glanced back toward the trees, squinted his eyes as if he were trying to dispel the shadows under the pine boughs. "Then, whatever it was, it went by here just before we came out of the woods, huh Dad?" That was true enough, although I hadn't thought about it. "When the storm's finished, maybe we can come out and look for new tracks," I said. "On snowshoes?" "Have to use snowshoes if the snow's over your head." "Great!" he said, dismissing the mystery that suddenly. If we could all remain small boys in at least one tiny corner of our minds, we would never |
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