"Jane Yolen - Briar Rose" - читать интересную книгу автора (Yolen Jane)

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making her wonder why only her sisters could start her crying.
I
C
-"Once upon a time . Gemma's voice interrupted them. All
turned to stare at her. The old woman's eyes remained firmly
closed.
"t
Now you've done it," Sylvia hissed. "She's awake again. She'll
tell that beastly story."

... like a
24

Jane Yolen

"Which is all times and no times but not the very best of time!
the whispery voice continued, "there was a castle, And in it live(
king who wanted nothing more in the world but a child." Her vo
seemed to be gathering strength from the telling and she moN
swiftly through the well-worn opening. "Now one day, finally a
at last and about time, the queen went to bed and gave birth t,
baby girl with a crown of red hair." Gemma tried to reach up
touch her own hair, but the posie kept her from moving and
hesitated as if the story had been-somehow-set awry. Then, dn
ing in another whispery breath, she went on. "The child's face
as beautiful as a wildflower and so the king named her . .
stopped.
"Briar Rose," the three sisters chorused, as quickly as if they v
youngsters again enjoying the story though, by their faces, tw,
least were angry and one-as red-haired as the princess in the t~
was in tears.
As if their antiphonal response was all the assurance she nee,
the old woman fell asleep again. Looking conspiratorially at
another, Sylvia and Shana slipped away from the bed and he~
for the door.
"Bec-" Shana called from the doorway.
Becca shook her head and didn't move. She meant by that I
shake that she would stay, that she forgave them their deser
And she did. It was an awful, urine-smelling place and there v
terrible sense of sadness and defeat underlying it, despite the !
tea service from which the residents drank their ten o'clock tei
the four o'clock Happy Hour and the cheery crafts room an,
desperate strains of "Clementine" and "Down by the Old
Stream" drifting up the elevator shaft. She understood her s
entirely and loved them, even though she often hated the t
they said. It was why she came to the nursing home every aftex
after work at the newspaper and stayed with Gemma three an(