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.It was late by then, and there was only one person in it, and that one person was me."Rab gave us a chance to say something, but neither of us did."I don't mean I went in.I didn't.I just stood out in the corridor and looked inside.And there I was, sitting in there.I had on a black turtleneck and a whiskey-colored suede sports jacket.I remember that, because I've never owned those clothes.It was my face behind my glasses, though.It was even my haircut.He--I--was reading Reader's Digest and didn't see me.But I saw myself, and I must have stood there for five minutes just staring at him."Then a nurse pushed past me and said, 'You can go in and see your aunt now, Mister Sammon.' He put down his magazine and stood up and said, 'Call me Rab.' And she smiled and said, 'You can see your Aunt Elspeth now, Rab.'"I stepped out of the way and the nurse and I went past me and down the corridor toward the Intensive Care Wing.I watched till they had gone through the big double doors and I couldn't see them anymore.Then I went into the waiting room and picked up that copy of the Reader's Digest that I had laid down and slipped it into my pocket, and went home and went to bed.I still have it, but I've never gotten up the nerve to read it."Rab sighed."That's my story.I don't imagine that yours will be true--I know both of you too well for that.But mine is.""When you woke up in the morning was your aunt still dead?" Bruce wanted to know.Rab said, "Yes, of course.The hospital called me at work."That bothered me, and I said, "When you started telling us about this, you said that there was a message from the hospital on your answering machine when you got home from the office.So the hospital didn't have your number there, presumably at least."Rab nodded."I suppose he gave it to them."Nobody said much after that, and pretty soon we undressed and got into our sleeping bags.When we had been asleep for two or three hours, Rab screamed.It brought me bolt upright, and Bruce, too.I sat up just in time to see Rab scream again.Then he blinked and looked around and said, "Somebody yelled.Did you hear it?"Bruce was a great deal wiser than I.He said, "It was an animal, Rah.Maybe an owl.Go back to sleep."Rah lay back down, and so did I; but I did not go back to sleep.I lay awake looking at the clouds, the moon, and the stars, and thinking about that midnight hospital waiting room in which the man who stood outside sat reading a magazine, the wondering just how much power the recently dead may have to twist our reality, and their own.There actually was something shrieking up on the bluff, but I cannot say with any confidence what it was.A wildcat, perhaps, or a cougar [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |
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