"Wolfe, Gene - Fish Story (txt)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

"I didn't mean that nothing like this has ever happened to me," Rah said, "just
that I don't want to talk about it."

I looked at him then. It was not easy to read his face in the firelight, but I
thought he seemed frightened.

It took about half an hour to get the story out of him. Here it is. I make no
comment because I have none to make; I do not know what it means, if it means
anything.

"I've always hated ghosts and all that sort of thing," Rah began, "because I had
an aunt who was a spiritualist. She used to read tea leaves, and bring her Ouija
board when she came to dinner, and hold seances, and so on and so forth. When I
was a little boy it scared me silly. I had nightmares, really terrible
nightmares, and used to wake up screaming. All that ended when I was thirteen or
fourteen, and since then I've despised the whole stupid business. Pretty soon
one of you is going to ask if I've ever seen a ghost, so I'll answer that right
now. No. Never.

"Well, you don't want my life history. Let's just say that I grew up, and after
a while my mother and father weren't around anymore, or married to each other
either. My sister was living in England. She's moved to Greece, but I still hear
from her at Christmas.

"One day I got home from work, and there was a message from Dane County Hospital
on my machine. Aunt Elspeth was dying, and if I wanted to see her one last time,
I had better get over there. I didn't want to. I had disliked her all my life,
and I was pretty sure the feeling was mutual. But I thought of her alone in one
of those high, narrow beds, dying and knowing that nobody cared that she was
dying. So I went.

"It was the most miserable four or five hours I've ever spent. She looked like
hell, and even though they had her in an oxygen tent, she couldn't breathe. She
kept taking these great gasping breaths ...."

Rab demonstrated.

"And in between breaths she talked. She talked about my grandparents' house,
which I've never seen, and how it had been there when she and Mom were kids. Not
just about them and my grandparents, but the neighbors, the dogs and cats they'd
owned, and everything. The furniture. The linoleum on the kitchen floor.
Everything. After a while I realized that she was still talking even when she
wasn't talking. Do you know what I mean? She would be taking one of those
horrible breaths, and I'd still hear her voice inside my head.

"It was getting pretty late, and I thought I'd better go. But there was
something I wanted to say to her first -- I told you how much I hate ghosts and
all that kind of crazy talk. Anyway, I cut her off while she was telling about
how she and my mother used to help my grandmother can tomatoes, and I said,
'Aunt Elspeth, I'd like you to promise me something. I want your word of honor