"Gene Wolfe - The Eyeflash Miracles" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

The Eyeflash Miracles
Gene Wolfe

"I cannot call him to mind."
--ANATOLE FRANCE, The Procurator of Judea



Little Tib heard the train coming while it was still a long way away, and
he felt it in his feet. He stepped off the track onto a prestressed concrete
tie, listening. Then he put one ear to the endless steel and listened to that
sing, louder and louder. Only when he began to feel the ground shake
under him did he lift his head at last and make his way down the
embankment through the tall, prickly weeds, probing the slope with his
stick.
The stick splashed water. He could not hear it because of the noise the
train made roaring by; but he knew the feel of it, the kind of drag it made
when he tried to move the end of the stick. He laid it down and felt with
his hands where his knees would be when he knelt, and it felt all right. A
little soft, but not broken glass. He knelt then and sniffed the water, and it
smelled good and was cool to his fingers, so he drank, bending down and
sucking up the water with his mouth, then splashing it on his face and the
back of his neck.
"Say!" an authoritative voice called. "Say, you boy!"
Little Tib straightened up, picking up his stick again. He thought, This
could be Sugarland. He said, "Are you a policeman, sir?"
"I am the superintendent."
That was almost as good. Little Tib tilted his head back so the voice
could see his eyes. He had often imagined coming to Sugarland and how it
would be there; but he had never considered just what it was he should
say when he arrived. He said, "My card . . ." The train was still rumbling
away, not too far off.
Another voice said: "Now don't you hurt that child." It was not
authoritative. There was the sound of responsibility in it.
 "You ought to be in school, young man," the first voice said. "Do you
know who I am?"
Little Tib nodded. "The superintendent."
"That's right, I'm the superintendent. I'm Mr. Parker himself. Your
teacher has told you about me, I'm sure."
"Now don't hurt that child," the second voice said again. "He never did
hurt you."
"Playing hooky. I understand that's what the children call it. We never
use such a term ourselves, of course. You will be referred to as an
absentee. What's your name?"
"George Tibbs."
"I see. I am Mr. Parker, the superintendent. This is my valet; his name
is Nitty."
"Hello," Little Tib said.
"Mr. Parker, maybe this absentee boy would like to have something to
eat. He looks to me like he has been absentee a long while."