"Charles de Lint - Big City Littles" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Lint Charles)

"No, I'm just thinking about hobs. I wanted to talk to you about them."
Holly's gaze went to an empty chair near the beginning of the store's farthest aisle, then came back to Sheri.
"What about them?" she asked.
There was now something guarded in the book-seller's features, but Sheri plunged on anyway.
"Were you serious about having one living in your store?" she asked.
"Um ... serious as in, is it true?"
A few months ago they'd been out celebrating the nomination of one of Sheri's books for a local writing award—s
hadn't won. That was when Holly had mentioned this hob, laughed it off when Sheri had asked for more details, and th
changed the subject.
"Because the thing is," Sheri said. "I could use some advice about little people right about now."
"You've got a hob living in your apartment?"
"No, I've got a Little—though he's only visiting."
"But Littles aren't—"
"Real," Sheri finished for her. "Any more than hobs. We both know that. Yet there he is, waiting for me in my
apartment all the same. I've set him up on a bookshelf with a ladder so that he can get up and down, and got some of m
old Barbie furniture out of my storage space in the basement."
"You kept your Barbie stuff?"
"And it's a good thing I did, seeing how useful it's proven to be today. Jenky—that's his name; Jenky Wood—like
the size, though he's not particularly enamoured with the colors."
"You're serious?"
"So it seems," Sheri told her. "Apparently he thinks I can find out how they can all become birds again."
"Like in your story."
Sheri nodded. "Although I haven't got the first clue."
"Well, I—"
But just then the front door opened and Kathryn Whelan, one of the other members of their book club, came in.
"I think I know someone who can help you," Holly said, before turning to smile at the new arrival.
 Snippet lifted her head from Sheri's lap with interest—hoping for another biscuit like the one Sheri had given her
earlier, no doubt.
"Someone tall, dark, and handsome—not to mention single?" Sheri asked after they'd exchanged hellos with Kath
"Not exactly."
"Who's tall, dark, and handsome?" Kathryn asked.
"The man of my dreams," Sheri told her.
Kathryn smiled. "Aren't they all?"
Sheri was helping Jenky rearrange the Barbie furniture on the bookshelf she'd cleared for his use when the doorbe
rang. "That'll be her," she said, suddenly nervous. "Should I hide?" Jenky asked.
"Well, that would kind of defeat the whole purpose of this, wouldn't it'"
"I suppose. It's just that letting myself be seen goes so against everything I've ever been told. My whole life has be
a constant concentration of secrets and staying hidden."
"Buck up," Sheri told him. "If all goes well, you might be a bird again and it won't matter who sees you."
"I'd rather be both," he said as she went to get the door.
She paused, hand on the knob. "Really?"
"Given a choice, wouldn't you want to be able to go back and forth between bird and Little?"
She gave a slow nod. "I suppose I would."
She turned back to open the door and everything just kind of melted away in her head. Jenky's problem, the
conversation they'd just had, the day of the week.
"Oh my," Sheri said.
The words came out unbidden, for standing there in the hallway was the idealization of a character she'd been
struggling with for weeks. The new picture book hadn't exactly stalled, but she kept having to write around this one
character because she couldn't quite get her clear in her head. She'd filled pages in her sketchbook with drawings,
particularly frustrated because while she knew what the character was supposed to look like, she was unable to get jus