"Connie Willis - Miracle and Other Christmas Stories" - читать интересную книгу автора (Willis Connie)

explaining to Jimmy Stewart how he hadn't gotten his wings yet.
"I have to go. I'm on my lunch hour, and I need to mail my Christmas cards, and I have to
be back at work by"—she glanced at her watch—"oh my God, fifteen minutes ago."
He put down the package and stood up. "Gift-wrapped presents," he said, making a "tsk"-ing
noise, "everybody rushing around spending money, rushing to parties, never stopping to have
some eggnog or watch a movie. Christmas is an endangered species." He looked longingly
back at the screen, where the angel was trying to convince Jimmy Stewart he'd never been
alive, and then wandered into the kitchen. "You got any Evian water?"
"No," Lauren said desperately. She hurried after him. "Look, I really have to get to work."
He had stopped at the kitchen table and was holding one of the Christmas cards.
"Computer-addressed," he said reprovingly. He tore it open.
"Don't—" Lauren said.
"Printed Christmas cards," he said. "No letter, no quick note, not even a handwritten
signature. That's exactly what I'm talking about. An endangered species."
"I didn't have time," Lauren said defensively. "And I don't have time to discuss this or
anything else with you. I have to get to work."
"No time to write a few words on a card, no time to think about what you want for
Christmas." He slid the card back into the envelope. "Not even on recycled paper," he said
sadly. "Do you know how many trees are chopped down every year to send Christmas cards?"
"I am late for—" Lauren said, and he wasn't there anymore.
He didn't vanish like in the movies, or fade out slowly. He simply wasn't there.
"—work," Lauren said. She went and looked in the living room. The TV was still on, but he
wasn't there, or in the bedroom. She went into the bathroom and pulled the shower curtain
back, but he wasn't there either.
"It was a hallucination," she said out loud, "brought on by stress." She looked at her watch,
hoping it had been part of the hallucination, but it still read 1:15. "I will figure this out later,"
she said. "I have to get back to work."
She went back in the living room. The TV was off. She went into the kitchen. He wasn't
there. Neither were her Christmas cards, exactly.
"You! Spirit!" she shouted. "You come back here this minute!"


"You're late," Evie said, filling out a catalog form. "You will not believe who was just here.
Scott Buckley. God, he is so cute." She looked up. "What happened?" she said. "Didn't they
hold the dress?"
"Do you know anything about magic?" Lauren said.
"What happened?"
"My sister sent me her Christmas present," Lauren said grimly. "I need to talk to someone
who knows something about magic."
"Fat. . . I mean Fred Hatch is a magician. What did your sister send you?"
Lauren started down the hall to Documentation at a half-run.
"I told Scott you'd be back any minute," Evie said. "He said he wanted to talk to you."
Lauren opened the door to Documentation and started looking over partitions into the
maze of cubicles. They were all empty.
"Anybody here?" Lauren called. "Hello?"
A middle-aged woman emerged from the maze, carrying five rolls of wrapping paper and a
large pair of scissors. "You don't have any Scotch tape, do you?" she asked Lauren.
"Do you know where Fred Hatch is?" Lauren asked.
The woman pointed toward the interior of the maze with a roll of reindeer-covered paper.
"Over there. Doesn't anyone have any tape? I'm going to have to staple my Christmas