"Madeline L' Engle - Time Quartet 02 - A Wind in the Door" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Engle Madeleine)

on the wall beside him. There was nothing to see except the wind blowing through the sun-bleached
grasses, and 'the two tall rocks, turning purple in the autumn evening light. "Are you sure it wasn't just
the rocks or shadows or something?" "Do rocks or shadows look like dragons?" "No, but—" "Meg, they
were right by the rocks, all sort of clustered together, wings, it looked like hundreds of wings, and eyes
opening and shutting between the wings, and some smoke and little spurts of fire, and I warned them not
to set the pasture on fire." "How did you warn them?" "I spoke to them. In a loud voice. And the flames
stopped." "Did you go close?" "It didn't seem wise. I stayed here on the wall and watched for a long time.
They kept folding and unfolding wings and sort of winking all those eyes at me, and then they all seemed
to huddle together and go to sleep, so I went home to wait for you. Meg! You don't believe me." She
asked, flatly, "Well, where have they gone?" "You've never not believed me before." She said, carefully,
"It's not that I don't believe you." In a strange way she did believe him. Not, perhaps, that he had seen
actual dragons—but Charles Wallace had never before tended to mix fact and fancy. Never before had he
separated reality and illusion in such a marked way. She looked at him, saw that he had a sweatshirt on
over his grubby shut. She held her arms about herself, shivered, and said—although she was quite warm
enough— "I think I'll go back to the house and get a cardigan. Wait here. I won't be long. If the dragons
come back—" "I think they will come back." "Then keep them here for me. I'll be as fast as I can."
Charles Wallace looked at her levelly. "I don't think Mother wants to be interrupted right now." "I'm not
going to interrupt her. I'm just going to get my cardigan." "Okay, Meg," he sighed.
She left him sitting on the wall, looking at the two great glacial deposits, waiting for dragons, or
whatever it was he thought he'd seen. All right, he knew that she was going back to the house to talk to
their mother, but as long as she didn't admit it out loud she felt that she managed to keep at least a little
of her worry from him.
She burst into the laboratory.
Her mother was sitting on a tall lab stool, not looking into the microscope in front of her, not writing
on the clipboard which rested on her knee, just sitting thoughtfully. "What is it, Meg?" She started to
blurt out Charles Wallace's talk of dragons, and that he had never had delusions before, but since Charles
Wallace himself had not mentioned them to their mother, it seemed like a betrayal for her to do so,
though his silence about the dragons may have been because of the presence of Dr. Louise.
Her mother repeated, a little impatiently, "What is it, Meg?" "What's wrong with Charles Wallace?"
Mrs. Murry put the clipboard down on the lab counter beside the microscope. "He had some trouble with
the bigger boys again in school today." "That's not what I mean." "What do you mean, Meg?" "He said
you had Dr. Colubra here for him." "Louise was here for lunch, so I thought she might as well have a
look at him." "And?" "And what, Meg?" "What's the matter with him?" "We don't know, Meg. Not yet,
at any rate." "Charles says you're worried about him." "I am. Aren't you?" "Yes. But I thought it was all
school. And now I don't think it is. He got out of breath just walking across the orchard. And he's too
pale. And he imagines things. And he looks—I don't like the way he looks." "Neither do I." "What is it?
What's wrong? Is it a virus or something?" Mrs. Murry hesitated. "I'm not sure." "Mother, please, if
there's anything really wrong with Charles I'm old enough to know." "I don't know whether there is or
not. Neither does Louise. When we find out anything definite, I'll tell you. I promise you that." "You're
not hiding anything?" "Meg, there's no use talking about something I'm not sure of. I should know in a
few days." Meg twisted her hands together nervously. "You really are worried." Mrs. Murry smiled.

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 W-in-Time - Wind in the Door, A

"Mothers tend to be. Where is he now?" "Oh—I left him on the stone wall—I said I was coming in for a
cardigan. I've got to run back or he'll think—" Without finishing she rushed out of the lab, grabbed a
cardigan from one of the hooks in the pantry, and ran across the lawn.
When she reached Charles Wallace he was sitting on the wall, just as she had left him. There was no
sign of dragons.