"Suzette Haden Elgin - Peacetalk 101" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elgin Suzette Haden)

holiday stuff the day afterward,when it was all on sale, and she stored it in a big
cardboardbox on the front closet shelf until the holiday came round again.Henry
pulled the box down, carried it into the kitchen, and setit on the table, where he
could see well enough by the dim lightover the stove.
The box was full of the usual junk. Wrappingpaper and ribbon.... greeting cards....
silly paper hats, foldedup. A tacky plastic globe that snowed when you turned it
upsidedown. Just junk. Henry pawed through it -- no need to be carefulwith it, since
Elizabeth wasn't going to be here for any moreholidays anyway -- hoping. Come on,
Elizabeth , he thought, don't let me down this time !
And there it was. One package of paper Adventcalendars, as ordered, in a dirty
plastic wrapper, marked downin the after-Christmas clearance sales to $3.45 for all
three.Henry only needed one.
He took the calendar out of the wrapper andtore it carefully in half so there'd be
exactly fourteen windows.There were five minutes left of the first day; he had time.
Carefully,he took the little paper square that covered the first windowbetween his
fingers and pulled it back, to mark Day One.


He had been feeling almost sleepy, but whenhe saw what was framed in the little
window he sat up straightand swore, and he was wide awake again. It was a bear. A
bigwhite bear, like they keep in zoos. The hairs on the backof his neck were
rising, he could feel them, and he shuddered.And then he was disgusted with
himself. It was a coincidence,that's all; it didn't mean anything. The tape recorder in
hishead agreed with him. Sensible people don't pay attentionto stuff like that,
Henry , it said.
The plastic mug on the kitchen table had acouple of pencils in it, for grocery lists;
Henry reached overand grabbed one. Carefully again, with the seriousness the
taskdeserved, he went back and forth over the bear with the pencillead until the
animal was hidden and there was nothing in thewindow any more but the kind of
empty dull gray that he knew he'dsee when he woke up tomorrow.
It was one minute past midnight; now, maybe,he could sleep. He put the calendar in
his briefcase so he wouldn'tforget to keep it with him, he put Elizabeth's box of
holidaystash back in the closet, and he walked back through the shadowsto his bed.




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Installment Two
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