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

“Good,” Harmony said. “We don’t want Uncle Jolyon to know, do
we?” Everyone nodded, equally devoutly. “Now I’ll go over the rules.
First, I put one of these tags into the ground for each of you and
that is where you have to start from. It makes a lot of difference
where you start, remember? Then I give you each one of these
cards.” She brought out of the bag a big bundle of cardboard
squares held together with a rubber band. There must have been
nearly a hundred of them. Some of them were old and tattered and
grey, some were quite new. Harmony put the bundle on the table
and said, “You stand there and read your card and—” She dug into
the bag again and brought out a large clock with Mickey Mouse on
the front and put that on the table too. “When the clock starts, you
get going and do exactly what it says on your card. And you have to
get back before it stops or you’ll be stuck out there. And—” She
fished in the bag again. “The first one back successfully , without
cheating , Tollie, gets this prize.” She brought out what was clearly
a Christmas tree ornament, made of plastic, in the shape of a
golden apple, and put it down with a flourish in the middle of the
table. “There.”
“Harmony,” said the youngest Laxton girl, “I can go on my own
this year, can’t I? I’m quite old now.”
“Well, Lucy—” Harmony looked from Lucy to Hayley. “Yes, I
suppose you are. You’d make two of Hayley. All right then.” While
Lucy was dancing about delightedly, making heavy rubbery flurps
with her boots, Harmony said, “Hayley, I was going to suggest you
went with Troy, as this is the first time you’ve played. Is that all
right, Troy?” Troy nodded in his good-humoured way. Tollie said,
“And me —I go alone too.”
“You know you always do,” Harmony said. “Now—”
“Let’s start !” Tollie whined. “I’m getting bored.”
“Yes,” Harmony said. She picked up the bundle of gardener’s
tags. Hayley saw that each of them had someone’s name written on
it. There was even one marked with HAYLEY. Harmony hurried up
and down the paddock with the bundle, digging each one into the
ground in a different place and calling out, “Lucy, you’re down here.
James, up here beside this bush, right? Tollie, off to the left here,”
and so on. Finally, she stuck two tags into the ground together, out
to one side. “Troy and Hayley, over here, see?” Then she came back
to the table, a bit breathless, and solemnly took the rubber band off
the cards. She shuffled the pack, the way you shuffle playing cards.
Everyone’s eyes fixed on her hands as if this was the most exciting
moment of the game. When she started passing the cards out, they
were snatched from her and everyone except Troy and Hayley raced
away to the markers.
“Harmony,” Troy said, lingering. “This is a bit fierce for
someone’s first go. Look. Can’t you change it?”
Harmony glanced at the card Troy was holding out. It was
obvious that she saw what Troy meant, but she shook her head.
“Sorry. No. I can’t make it work with a change. The only thing you
can do is not to play.”