"L. Lee Lowe - Mortal Ghost" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lowe L Lee)

hair. A cloud of dust rose when Jesse threshed his own ragged crop with his fingertips, enough for both of
them to sneeze.

Sarah picked a spot for them to eat more or less at random. There was no shade, though near the
Chapter 4 32

circumference of the circle the tall plants provided a little relief. Sarah knelt, began to unpack the carrier bag,
then leaned back on her heels.

'Your memory's starting to worry me,' she said. 'Petabytes beyond industry standard.'

Jesse reddened. 'Sorry. I didn't mean to show off.'

'There might be things to apologise for, but being intelligent isn't one of them.' She handed him a white carton.
'That's for Nubi.'

They ate. Jesse noticed that Sarah wolfed the food almost as hungrily as he did. No fine table manners here.
They had plastic spoons to use, but Sarah broke off pieces of the chappatis to dip into her curry and didn't
hesitate to lick her fingers. Jesse was more fastidious.

'When's the last time you had a proper meal?' Sarah asked.

Jesse shrugged.

After they'd sated their first hunger, Jesse fiddled with his spoon, turning it this way and that in his fingers.
'Thanks for coming back,' he said at last.

'You scared me.'

'Sorry,' he muttered.

'Not like that. I'm not afraid of you.'

'You ought to be.'

'Do you want to talk about it?'

'No.'

They were silent for a while.

Jesse lay back in the grass and stared up at the cloudless sky. Nubi was busy crunching away at his heap of
bones. Nearby Sarah had twined her legs into a lotus, her eyes on the corn, her mind probably elsewhere; her
breathing was faint but audible, reassuring. Otherwise, the world was still, waiting for deliverance, or at least
a winning lottery ticket. The canopy of heat draped a fine gauze across his eyes. He laid an arm behind his
head. Summer memories of a swing, high scratchy grass, an ice cream dripping through his fingers, a child's
giggle. There's no going back. A butterfly flutters and the world changes. Always, it changes. It does no good
to wish, to regret, to what-if. You take what's handed out.

He must have slept. When he opened his eyes, the sun was lower in the sky. Nubi lay at his side, asleep, or