"Diana Wynne Jones - The Game" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jones Diana Wynne)

aloud. “You want to catch things at their best and keep them if you
can.”
She looked hard at the photo and wished she had another photo
to put beside it, of the boy and his dogs. They had been having such
fun chasing through the budding green woods. She began to
imagine them, not as she had seen them, but before that, running
in an eager line, with the boy at the back of them, cracking his
whip and laughing at their mistakes. She remembered that each
dog was slightly different from the others. Snuffer had one brown
ear. Chaser was all white, while Doom was nearly black, with
yellow speckles. Bell had a pale brown patch, like a saddle, on her
back. The brown-and-yellow one was Pickles, the one with the
white ears was Flags, and the other dark-coloured one was Genius.
Then there were Rags, Noser, Wag, and Petruvia, all of whom were
greyish with black bits in different places. As for the boy, he had
been wearing baggy clothes rather like Flute’s, only in brighter
colours, blues and reds. His whip had red patterns on the handle.
Hayley could really almost see them, rushing along, tails up and
waving. She could hear their pattering and panting, the occasional
yelp, and the boy laughing as he cracked his whip. She could smell
dog and leafy forest. So happy—
Grandma came in just then, saying, “Well? Have you
remembered— Hayley !”
Hayley came to herself with a jump to find the boy and his dogs
really and truly rushing through her room in front of her, soundless
now, and fading as they ran, while Grandma stared at them in grey
outrage.
“I have had enough of you, Hayley,” Grandma said. “You’re a
wicked little girl—quite uncontrollable! Haven’t I taught you not to
mix There with Here?”
The dogs faded silently away and the boy melted off after them.
Hayley turned miserably to Grandma. “They were happy. They
weren’t doing any harm.”
 “If that’s all you can say—” Grandma began.
“It is,” Hayley interrupted defiantly. “It’s what I say. Happy!”



5
«^»
Hayley hated to remember the next bit. Grandma refused to
explain or speak to Hayley. She simply rammed Hayley’s clothes
into a suitcase and made Grandad phone Aunt May to send Cousin
Mercer to fetch Hayley away. Hayley was locked into her room
until Cousin Mercer arrived the following morning and nobody
came near her, even to bring food. That was bad enough. So was
the journey that followed, long and confusing and full of delays and
rain. But the worst was that Hayley was sure that Flute would
turn up in the garden and find her gone, and be terribly puzzled.
She was sure she would never see Flute again.