"Simon R. Green - Nightside 1 - Drinking Midnight Wine" - читать интересную книгу автора (Green Simon R)
Toby felt disappointed and a little crushed, even though he'd always gone to great lengths to
avoid being noticed as he watched her. He felt somehow that she should have known.
'So!' he said, for want of anything else to say. 'What do you do, in Bath? What's your job?'
'I work at a centre for children with problems. It's privately funded. It's part refuge, part
surgery, part school. We get all kinds. Kids that are deaf or blind, handicapped, traumatised...
survivors of sexual abuse. Some have AIDS, some ADS.'
'ADS?'
'Attention Deficit Syndrome, or whatever the hell they're calling it this week. Kids too bright
for the system, who can't or won't fit in. They play havoc with normal teaching systems, and
disrupt classrooms, and the usual practice is to drug them up to the eyeballs. Turn them into
obedient little zombies. Which is understandable, they can be right little bastards. But we try to
channel their energies into more productive, more sociable patterns. It's slow, hard work, but it
has its rewards. Do you like children?'
'Yes, but I couldn't eat a whole one.' Gayle laughed at that, almost despite herself, and they
shared a smile. Toby hurried on. 'I like kids in the abstract, but I don't have much practical
experience of them. I don't know if I'd have your kind of patience. Do you have... children of
your own?'
Gayle smiled. 'I like to think they're all my children. I care for them, help where I can, and do
my best never to give up on them. What do you do for a living, Toby?'
'Ah,' said Toby, thinking quickly. 'I'm connected with publishing. On the retail side. Interesting
work. Look; can we please talk about what's going on? All the weird shit I've seen today? What
really happened last night? Why does the town I've lived in most of my life suddenly seem so
different? And please don't use the word magic again. I don't believe in magic, or any of that
stuff. I've read everything from The Golden Bough to Chariots of the Gods, and I've never been
sounds scientific'
'Science arises out of the real world,' said Gayle, almost sympathetically. That isn't all there
is. The universe is much bigger than that. You can't think in such limited terms any more, Toby.'
'Let's start with last night,' Toby said doggedly. 'There was a door, where there wasn't a door
before. We walked through it. Everything changed. How?'
'We were in the real world last evening,' Gayle said patiently. 'You and I, on the train, on the
platform. Then in the car park. It was raining. I was... impatient. So I opened a door, between
the real world and the magical world. Between Veritie and Mysterie. I can do that. I have powers,
responsibilities. I decided it wasn't raining in Mysterie, and so it wasn't.'
'You made the door appear. I thought there was no magic in the real world?'
Gayle nodded approvingly. 'You're starting to catch on. There are doors everywhere: natural fault-
lines, fractures, between the two worlds. People like me, and now you, with a foot in both worlds,
can see these doors, these openings, and can pass through them. Sometimes people fall through by
accident. There are many stories of people disappearing suddenly. Look them up if you want. Down
the centuries people have blamed the disappearances on everything from fairy rings to UFOs.
Anyway, the point is, you followed me through the door I opened, and into Mysterie. You are now
part of, and aware of, the magical world, and it is becoming aware of you.'
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'What... were you, originally?' said Toby slowly. 'Real, or magical?'
'I've always been both,' said Gayle, smiling. 'It's part of my nature. But I prefer to live in the
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