"Jo Walton - The Rebirth of Pan" - читать интересную книгу автора (Walton Jo)

There was a statue of the saint there, a plaster copy of a marble original. Behind it there was an
icon. Ag. Paraskevi was very beautiful, whichever one looked at. Behind her head in the icon were
doves. She was the patron saint of love and peace. It was love that brought Katerina here now. She lit
her candle, and hung up her plaque on it's little piece of ribbon, beside all the others. Then she stood up
straight before the shrine to pray, looking the statue in the eye.

"Agia Paraskevi, my name is Katerina, I am the daughter of Stellio, who keeps the taverna in the
square. I am seventeen years old, and nobody loves me. I am not ugly, but I am not beautiful either, not
like models in magazines and not like you either. I have left school and I am working serving tables in my
father's taverna. I have three older sisters, and they are all married and living at home with the family. Ag.
Paraskevi, I don't want to grow old working in the taverna all the time, without anything ever happening
to me! I don't mind if I get married or not, but I want love, I want excitement, I want someone to care
about me. I don't just want to marry somebody my mother picks out and carry on working at home like
my sisters." This was what she had prepared, but she added a thought that had just come into her mind.
"Ag. Paraskevi? If it is true what Yanni said about Great Pan being reborn, then you will take off your
cloak and be Aphrodite again. If that happens, and I pray it does, I want someone beside me when the
world changes! Holy saint, hear my prayer" she finished, in a completely different, formal and empty tone.


She left the church walking with a jaunty air. She was surprised to see Pappa Thomas in the
courtyard as she came out. He had come in to her school once a week to teach religion to the older
children. All he ever talked about was God the Creator and the Passion of Jesus. She almost giggled to
think how much he would have disapproved of her prayer. She smiled at him and tried to go past. He
raised an arm to halt her.

"Katerina!" he said. "I'd like to speak to you, if you don't mind. Would you like to come into my
house?" Katerina had, of course, often been warned about being alone with men. She could not work in
the taverna without getting used to seeing lust in men's eyes. It repelled her as much as the consuming
love she longed for attracted her. She looked closely at Pappa Thomas, and did not see any lust or
danger in him. Her mother always warned her especially about priests, whose lechery was proverbial.
Pappa Thomas had no wife. Priests must be married before their ordination, if they are ever to marry. It
is forbidden for a priest to marry but not for a married man to become a priest. Pappa Thomas had
clearly decided never to marry, although he was a young man still, perhaps ten years older than Katerina.
She could tell he still thought her a child. She followed him across the courtyard into his little house.
Inside it was cool, almost too cold. He shut the door quickly. "The air conditioning." he explained.
Katerina felt goosepimples on her arms. She hadn't been anywhere this cool for months.

He led her into a small book-lined room, gave her lemonade and a dishful of sheep's milk yaourti
drenched with honey, cold from the refrigerator. When she had eaten a few mouthfuls of the sticky treat,
and answered a few dull questions about her education and employment, Pappa Thomas came to the
point.
 "You were working last night at Yanni's party?" he asked, as if casually. "Tell me what happened,
please. I have heard rumours, but nothing for certain from anyone who was there." Katerina knew that
one must never lie to a priest. Yet she wasn't a fool. She knew that it would be a terrible idea to tell
Pappa Thomas what had happened. She didn't know what he would do, but she knew there would be
trouble. He wasn't stupid, but he had trouble understanding things that everyone else found perfectly
obvious. It was probably because he was from the mainland. She tried to find something to say that was
not a lie but not too revealing either.