"Arkadi and Boris Strugatsky. Monday begins on Saturday (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

"Don't worry yourself, ma'am," I said. "I really don't require
anything. I'm going to just let you go."
"That's good," said the pike calmly. "I like people like you. The other
day, too, there was this case. Some guy bought me in the market and I had to
promise him a tsar's daughter. So there I am, swimming along in the river,
full of shame, not knowing where to hide myself. Next thing, not looking
where I am going, I barge right into a net. They lug me up. Again, I figure
I'll have to lie my way out. So what do you think the man does? He grabs me
right across the teeth so I can't open my mouth. ‘That's the end,' I
thought. ‘Into the soup kettle with me-- this time.' But no. He clamps
something on my fin and back in the water I go. See?"
The pike raised herself out of the bucket and placed a fin on the edge.
At its base was a metal clamp on which I read: This specimen released in the
Solovei River in the year 1854. Deliver to H.I.M. Academy of Science.

"Don't tell the hag," warned the pike. "She'll tear it out with the
fin. Greedy, she is, the miser.

What should I ask her? I thought feverishly.
"How do you work your miracles?"
"What miracles?"
"You know-- wish fulfillments."
"Oh, that? How do I do it? Been taught from infancy, that's how. I
guess I don't really know. . . . The Golden Fish,* she did it even better
than I, but she is dead now. You can't escape your fate."
It seemed to me she sighed.
"From old age?" I asked.
"Old age, nothing! Young she was, and spritely. They dropped a depth
charge on her, my fine friend. So belly-up she went, and some kind of vessel
that happened nearby also sank. She would have bought herself off, but they
didn't ask. No sooner sighted, than blam with the bomb. .. . That's the way
of it." She was silent a while. "Well, then, are you going to let me go? It
feels close somehow; there is going to be a thunderstorm."
"Of course, of course," I said, startled back to reality. "How should I
do it? Throw you in, or in the bucket?"
"Throw me in, my good man, throw me in."
Carefully I dipped my hands into the bucket and extracted the pike-- it
must have weighed in at around eight kilos. She kept on murmuring, "And how
about a self-serving tablecloth or a flying carpet-- I'll be right here. You
can count on me...
"So long," I said, and let go. There was a noisy splash.
For some time, I stood there gazing at my hands, covered with green
slime. I experienced some kind of strange feeling. Part of the time an
awareness came over me, like a gust of wind, that I was sitting on the sofa
in the room, but all I had to do was shake my head and I was back at the
well. The feeling dissipated. I washed in the fine ice-cold water, filled
the car radiator, then shaved. The old woman was still out.

_____________________________________________________________________________
* Reference to well-known fairy tale with magic fish.