"Pat Murphy - Departure" - читать интересную книгу автора (Murphy Pat)

No lights shone in the surrounding buildings. The streetlights were out.
Moonlight glistened on the fire escape outside her window, reflected from the
empty windows of the apartment building across the way.

Jan opened the window and listened. A trick of the wind, she thought. But the
howling rose and fell in a chorus that was unrelated to the wind. Wolves in
the
streets of Manhattan. She shivered and closed the window.

When she dialed 911, a woman's voice answered.

"There are wolves in the street," Jan said. "I can hear them howling."

"What is the nature of your 911 emergency?" the woman asked. She sounded
bored.

"I can hear wolves howling" Jan repeated. "Not far away."

"Noisy dogs do not constitute an emergency," the woman said briskly. "Contact
Animal Control during normal business hours."

"But I can hear. . . ." Jan was speaking to the dial tone.

She hung up and listened at the window again. The wind sang through the
latticework of the fire escape and a taxi passed by in the street below. Again
she heard howling a little nearer now.

She hesitated, then dialed her husband's number. She imagined him fumbling for
the telephone on the bedside table, his eyes half-closed, his body naked under
the covers. She imagined the click as he switched on the bedside light, a
brass
lamp that she had bought at an antique shop a few months ago. She was
reassured
just by the sound of his sleepy hello.

She said nothing. Since she left him, she had called him every now and then --
maybe once a week, no more than that. She did not want to talk to him; she
only
wanted to hear his voice. Each time, she swore she would not call him again,
but
her resolve always failed.

"Hello," he said again. She listened to the sound of his breathing, but she
did
not speak. What would she tell him? The power was out. Wolves were howling in
the street. What would he say? He would tell her that she was just letting her
imagination mn away with her. He would tell her not to call. It was best just
to
listen to his voice, visualizing the bedroom that she had once thought of as