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

it. He finally grabbed a few handfuls in self-defence, and then decided that this was just too
damned weird, and quite likely to get him arrested as well. He stuffed the notes in his pocket
without even looking at them, and hurried off down the street, not looking back once. Behind him,
banknotes slowly gathered in a pile on the pavement as the cash machine sang mournfully to itself.
Toby decided very firmly that he needed a drink. In fact, he quite probably needed several drinks,
one after the other, and perhaps a swift slap to the side of the head while he was at it. He
hadn't been so confused since that gorgeous blonde in the wine bar turned out to have a flat male
chest under the padded bra. He headed straight for the Dandy Lion, in many ways his second home.
He waited agitatedly at the pedestrian crossing, and nearly lost it again when a shocking-pink
Rolls-Royce cruised past, and a strangely familiar aristocratic female face looked out of the
window and smiled sweetly at him. Toby averted his eyes. Maybe if he just refused to accept all
this weirdness, it would go away and bother someone else.
He dived across the road at the first chance he got, and hurried into the pub. Once again,


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everything looked the same, but the place was full of people he didn't recognise, many of whom
stopped talking to stare at him as he paused in the doorway. Toby squared his shoulders and headed
determinedly for the bar. This was getting ridiculous. People slowly started talking again as he
ordered his usual pint of bitter from the familiar face behind the bar. For once, wonder of
wonders, the jukebox was actually playing something worth listening to. But as Toby listened, he
felt the strangeness creeping over him again. It was quite definitely a Beatles song, but not one
he'd ever heard before. And Toby was a Beatles fanatic. He had everything they'd ever done,
including quite a few of the bootlegs. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up as he realised
that this was no early Hamburg tape; this was Lennon and McCartney at the height of their
songwriting powers. Singing a song he'd never heard before...
His pint arrived. He paid for it automatically and took a good hard drink. And then he stopped,
considered, and took another, slower drink. It was good. Damn, it was good, the best bitter beer
he'd ever tasted. And most especially one hell of a lot better than the stuff he usually drank.
Must be a new brand. He was about to ask the barmaid when someone called his name in a sharp,
commanding voice.
He looked around and there was Carys Galloway, sitting tucked away in her usual corner, underneath
the stairs leading up to the restaurant floor. Toby smiled, relief washing over him. It was good
to see that some things hadn't changed, on this most unusual of days. Carys spent more time in the
Dandy Lion than he did. She was the foremost gossip of the whole town, a title not easily gained,
and if anyone knew why today was acting as if it had got its medication mixed up, it would be
Carys Galloway. She knew everything. Or at least, the few things she didn't know weren't usually
worth the knowing.
Toby hurried over to join her at her usual table, and for the first time ever it occurred to him
to wonder about Carys. It seemed as though she had always been around, sitting in her gloomy
corner, always ready to lend an ear, to sort out a problem, or just to swap gossip about everyone
and everything. There was no malice in Carys. She just liked to know things, and she liked to
share what she knew with people she felt she could trust. Always cheerful, always smiling... That
was it. Toby's pace slowed as he realised what it was that looked different about Carys this
morning. For the first time in all the years Toby had known her, Carys wasn't smiling. In fact,
Toby thought, as he sat gingerly down opposite her, Carys looked very different today.
It was the same familiar face, with its sharp chin and prominent cheekbones, and more than a hint
of ethnic gypsy. Dark russet hair fell in thick ringlets to her shoulders and beyond, and her eyes