"Barker, Clive - The Thief of Always" - читать интересную книгу автора (Barker Clive)

"Could you draw it?"
"I could try."
He did just that, and though he wasn't much of an artist his hand seemed to remember more than his brain had, because after a half hour he had drawn the House in considerable detail. His father was pleased.
"We'll take this with us tomorrow," he said. "Maybe somebody will recognize it."
But the second day was just as frustrating as the first. Nobody knew the House that Harvey had drawn, nor anything remotely, like it. By the end of the afternoon, Harvey's father was getting short-tempered.
"It's useless!" he said. "I must have asked five hundred people and not one of them-not one-even vaguely recognized the place."
"It's not surprising," said Harvey. "I don't think anyone who saw the House-besides me and Wendell-ever escaped before."
"We should just repeat all this to the police," his mother said, "and let them deal with it."

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"And what do we tell them?" his father said, raising his voice. "That we think there's a House out there that hides in a mist, and steals children with magic? It's ridiculous!"
"Calm down, calm down," Harvey's mother said. "We'll talk about this after we've eaten."
They trudged home, ate and discussed the whole problem again, but without finding any solutions. Mr. Hood had laid his traps carefully over the years, protecting himself from the laws of the real world. Safe behind the mists of his illusion, he'd most likely already found two new and unwitting prisoners to replace Harvey and Wendell. It seemed his evil would go on, undiscovered and unpunished.
The following day Harvey's father made an announcement.
"This search is getting us nowhere," he said. "We're going to give it up!"
"Are you going to the police?" his wife asked him.
"Yes. And they'll want Harvey to tell them everything he knows. It's going to be difficult."
"They won't believe me," Harvey said.
"That's why I'm going to talk to them first," his father said. "I'll, find somebody who'll listen."
He left soon after breakfast, with a worried expression on his face.
"This is all my fault," Harvey said to his mom. "We lost all that time together, just because I was bored."
"Don't blame yourself," she said. "We're all tempted to do things we regret once in a while. Sometimes we choose badly and make mistake
"I just wish I knew how to unmake it," Harvey replied.
His mother went out shopping in the middle of the morning, and left Harvey haunted by that thought. Was there some way to undo the damage that had been done? To take back the stolen years, and live them here, with the people who loved him, and whom he loved dearly in return?
He was sitting at his bedroom window, trying to puzzle the problem out, when he saw a forlorn figure at the street corner. He threw open the window and yelled down to him:
"Wendell! Wendell! Over here!"
Then he raced downstairs. By the time he opened the door his friend was on the step, his face red and wet with tears and sweat.
"What happened?" he said. "Everything's changed." His words were punctuated by hiccups. "My dad divorced my mom and my mom's so old, Harvey, and fat as a house." He wiped his running nose with the back of his hand, and sniffed hard. "It wasn't supposed to be this way!" he said. "Well, was it?"
Harvey did his best to explain how the House had deceived them, but Wendell was in no mood for theory. He just wanted the nightmare to be over.
"I want things the way they were," he wailed.
"My dad's gone to the police," Harvey said. "He's going to tell them everything."
"That won't do any good," Wendell said despairingly. "They'll never find the House."
"You're right," Harvey said. "I went to look for it with my mom and dad, but it was no use. It's hiding."
"Well it's bound to hide from them, stupid, " Wendell said. "It doesn't want grown-ups."
"You're right," said Harvey. "It wants children. And I bet it wants you and me more than ever."
"How'd you reckon that?"
"It almost had us. It almost ate us alive."
"So you think it's got a taste for us?"
"I'm sure of it"
Wendell stared at his feet for a moment. "You think we should go back, don't you?"
"I don't think any of those grown-ups-my dad, your mom, the police-are ever going to find the House. If we want all those years back, we have to get them for ourselves."
"I don't much like the idea," Wendell confessed.
"Neither do I," he said, thinking as he spoke that he'd have to leave a note for his mom and dad, so that they wouldn't think his return had been a dream. "We have to go," he said. "We don't have any choice."
"So when do we start?"
"Now!" said Harvey grimly. "We've lost, too much time already."

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