"Picnic At Lac Du Sang" - читать интересную книгу автора (Masterton Graham)

reflects them, and looks as if it's filled with blood. They say it was a
magic place, a sacred place, where even the Indians would never venture.
'Anyway, the girls set out their picnic and the day was perfect There was
never such a day in the history of days. The lake, the trees, the sky so
blue that it could have been ceramic. The teacher stood up and looked
around at her girls and said, "What a perfect, perfect day. I wish we
could all stay young forever. I wish the day could last for twenty-four
years, instead of twenty-four hours."'
Mme Leduc stood looking at Vincent and Vincent waited for her to continue,
but she didn't. After a while, he said, 'Go on. She wished that it would
last for twenty-four years. Then what?'
'Then it did.'
Another long pause. 'I don't understand,' said Vincent.
'It's not difficult,' said Mme Leduc. 'The day lasted for twenty-four
years. At least, it did for them. The sun stayed high in the sky and they
didn't notice the time passing by. It was all like a dream. When at last
they returned to the school they found that it was closed, and that all
their friends had gone. It was no longer 1924. It was 1948.'
She went over to a rosewood bureau on the opposite side of the room and
returned with a yellowed newspaper. 'Here,' she said. 'This is what
happened.'
It was a copy of The St Michel-des-Monts Sentinel. The front-page headline
read SEARCH FOR ST AGATHE GIRLS CALLED OFF - Little Hope Of Finding
Missing 9 And Teacher, Say Mounties.
Vincent read the first paragraph. 'Police now believe there is little or
no hope of them ever finding the teacher and nine girls from St Agathe's
Academy who went missing three months ago on a picnic at Lac du Sang. The
entire area has been thoroughly searched and there is no evidence to
suggest that they all ran away together or that their disappearnace is a
practical joke. RCMP inspector Renй Truchaud called the Lac du Sang
incident, "The greatest single mystery in Canadian police history."'
Mme Leduc said, 'They came looking for us on the day after we disappeared,
but of course we weren't there. To them, we were still in yesterday, still
lying in the grass by the lake.'
'It was you? It was you and your girls?'
Mme Leduc gave him a sad, elegant nod. 'We had a day like no other day has
ever been; or ever will be. But we came back here and found that half of
our lives had passed us by. I still don't know what happened to us; or
why. I still don't know whether it was supposed to be a gift or a curse.
But the first part of my wish came true, too, and so long as we stay here,
inside the house, we remain as we were, all those years ago. It's almost
as if my wish diverted us out of the stream of time, into a backwater, and
that me and my seven girls are doomed or blessed to stay here forever.'
'It says here nine girls.'
'Yes ... there were nine. Two of them left - Sara five years ago, and
Imogene just before Christmas. Sara tried to come back but she didn't look
like a young girl any longer. Time had caught up with her, and aged her
over forty years in a single week. I received a letter from Imogene. Only
two lines. Do you want to read it?'
She passed over a sheet of paper that had been folded and refolded until