"Charles de Lint - Make a Joyiful Noise" - читать интересную книгу автора (De Lint Charles)

He nodded.

“Does she ever come back here?”

He laughed, but without any mirth. “Are you kidding? She hated this place. Why do you think she joined
any school club and sports team that would have her? She’d do anything to get out of the house. Mother
kept her on such a tight leash that she couldn’t fart without first asking for permission.”

“But you’re here.”

“Like I said, I died here. In my own room. I got bit by a bee that came in through the window. No one
knew I was allergic. My throat swelled up and I asphyxiated before I could try to get any help.”

“It sounds horrible.”

“It was. They came back from one of Madeline’s games and found me sprawled dead on the floor in my
bedroom. It did warrant a small notice in the paper–I guess it was a slow news day–but that clipping
never made it into a scrapbook.”

“And now you’re here…”

“Until she finally notices me,” he finished for me.

“Why did she ignore you?” I asked. “When you were alive, I mean.”

“I don’t know. Madeline said it’s because I looked too much like our dad. We were in grade school
when he walked out on her, leaving her with a mess of debts and the two of us. I guess her way of getting
over it was to ignore me and focus on Madeline, who took after her own side of the family.”

“Humans are so complicated,” I said.

“Which you’re not.”

“Oh, I’m very complicated.”

“I meant human.”

“What makes you say that?” I asked.

He kept count on his fingers. “One, you can see me, which most people can’t. Two, you can talk to me,
which most people really can’t. Three, you’re sitting there all calm and composed, when most
people–most human people–would be flipping out.”

I shrugged. “Does it matter what I am?”

“Not really.”

He looked down the hall as though he could see through the walls to where his mother lay sleeping. The
mother who’d ignored him when he was alive and now that he was dead, still ignored him. Her mind