"Mary A. Turzillo - Chrysoberyl" - читать интересную книгу автора (Turzillo Mary A)

MARY A. TURZILLO

CHRYSOBERYL

"If I discovered a real dragon," says Mary Turzillo. "I'd convince myself that
it was a gecko or a salamander. I mean, who wants to be labeled a nut?"

This editor does, that's who. But then again, I grew up in a household that
encouraged a little nuttiness. In fact, for my seventh birthday I received a
plaster cast of one of the dinosaur eggs discovered in the Gobi Desert. And I
also received a certain novel by Mr. O. Butterworth to which "Chrysoberyl" pays
homage delightfully. (You can look up the book--I'm pleased to report that it is
still in print.)

Ginnie labeled the patient file, "CHRYS -- winged iguana? Owners: Jessica and
Tod Fithian." She leaned back in the creaky old office chair -- her down payment
on this farmhouse where she set up her new veterinary practice had left her
little money for fancy furniture -- and gave the Fithians what she hoped was a
sage and professional look. The three, father and two kids, were new people,
part of the invasion of yuppies into this old farm community.

"We have to get rid of it," said Mr. Fithian. His nine-year-old daughter
Jessica, who smelled of grape bubble-gum and baby shampoo, was clutching Chrys
tearfully. "I'd turn it over to the Animal Protective League, but --"

Ginnie held her arms out for the lizard. "Does it eat anything besides kittens?"
Chrys, warm and surprisingly light despite its distended abdomen, came to her
and fastened its claws in her sweater. It smelled like soap and charcoal. In the
spring sunshine streaming through the panes of wavy glass, its abdomen was gold,
its top parts green as new grass.

"He only ate the kittens by accident," Jessica said, all belligerent defense.
"We feed him mice and hamburger now."

"He toasts them himself," said Tod. Tod was six, and imaginative.

"Ha ha," said Ginnie, sorry for Tod, who was losing his pet.

The truth was, she had no idea what Chrys was. When her receptionist had ushered
the Fithians into the high-ceilinged farm dining room which she had converted
into a treatment room, she had thought it was an iguana. But it was the biggest
iguana she had ever seen.

Not to speak of the wings.

"In your own words, kids, tell me where you found it," Ginnie said. The lizard
(she refused, just yet, to call it a dragon) flicked its tongue out and licked
her jaw. Its gaze fastened on her, like a puppy in love.
"We were out at Nelson Ledges," said Jessica. "Just climbing around, and we went
in this big dark cave." Nelson Ledges was a local park featuring sandstone