"Simon R. Green - Nightside 1 - Drinking Midnight Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)

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rare and unusual cars in town, just for the day, that he'd managed to avoid hearing about... but
he didn't think so. Somehow, during the night, while he'd slept, all the rules had been changed.
He just knew it. Someone had yanked the rug out from under the world he knew, and he was beginning
to have a strong suspicion as to just who that was.
He left the car park, and crossed the new bridge. (New because it had only been constructed in
1962, as opposed to the main town bridge, which was at least thirteenth-century, and maybe older.)
Halfway across, Toby heard something splashing loudly in the river down below and automatically
looked over the dark railings, only to look quickly away, shocked by something he was sure he
couldn't have seen correctly. It wasn't the bare flesh, or the bobbing breasts, or the wicked
smile on the pointed face; it was the long green gleam of a fish's tail... He refused absolutely
to even think the m-word, but he couldn't deny what he'd seen. He made himself look back over the
railings again. Ducks. Swans. Swirling dark waters. Nothing else. Of course there was nothing
else! Toby walked on, looking straight ahead. Behind him, someone was singing a song of great
beauty in a warm, breathy contralto. He didn't look back, even when the bridge was safely far
behind him.
He walked on into Church Street and it seemed to him that there were a lot of people around, even
for a Saturday morning. What was more, quite a few of them seemed to be looking at him strangely.
Which was odd, because this was, after all, his home town, he a Bradfordian born and bred, and he
was, if nothing else, a familiar face to most people. He checked himself unobtrusively, for
spilled food or undone flies, but all seemed to be in order. He lifted his chin a little and
stared back, and everyone looked away again.

It occurred to him that he was a bit short of money, so he stopped at the cash machine in the wall
outside his bank. But even as he was fumbling in his coat pocket for his cash card and mentally
rehearsing his pin number, the cash machine suddenly spoke to him.
'Oh, you needn't bother with that, dear. It's only money. How much do you want?'
Toby froze with his hand still in his pocket, and then looked quickly about him. There was no one
else anywhere nearby. He looked reluctantly back at the glowing computer screen before him.
Instead of the usual green lettering, there were two yellow circles that might have been eyes, and
a wide curve for a smile. As he watched, the smile widened, and one of the eyes winked at him.
Toby cleared his throat.
'Uh... hello?'
'Hello there! Isn't it a simply super morning?'
'Am I speaking to a machine... or something?'
'Oh, something, dear, definitely something. You just tell me how much you need, and I will shower
you with largesse.'
'Is this some kind of joke?' said Toby, after a pause. 'One of those hidden camera jobs? Because I
never thought they were funny, even when I was just watching them.'
'No joke, sweetie,' said the cash machine briskly. 'You can have as much as you can carry away,
and do you know why? Because I like your face!'
'Maybe I didn't get up this morning,' Toby said wistfully. 'Maybe I'm still in bed, and dreaming
all this. It would explain a lot.'
'Oh no, this isn't The Dreaming. That's next door but one.'
'And you... want to give me money?'
'Of course! Have as much as you want! I've got lots!'
And the cash machine sprayed banknotes into the air, tens and twenties shooting out in a great
stream of multicoloured paper, fluttering to the ground like so many leaves in autumn. Toby stood
there gaping. He'd never seen so much money in one place in his life, and there seemed no end to