All Flesh is Grass

If they were intent on proving what great tasks they could perform, there were more important ways of proving it than growing fifty-dollar bills on bushes and all their other hocus-pocus.

There were phones down at the village hall, the ones that had been taken from Stiffy's shack, and I could use one of those, of course, but I'd probably have to break Hiram's skull before I could get at one of them. And another round with Hiram, I decided, was something I could get along without.

Пора уже тому, другому миру раскачаться.

Можно бы, конечно, позвонить по одному из телефонов, взятых в лачуге у Шкалика, они хранятся в муниципалитете, но, чтоб до них добраться, мне сперва пришлось бы, наверно, проломить башку Хайраму. Нет, новой стычки с Хайрамом я сейчас не жажду.

I looked around for Sherwood, but he wasn't there, and neither was Nancy. One of them might be home and they'd let me use the phone in Sherwood's study.

A lot of the others were heading up toward Doc's house, but I turned and went the other way.

Я поискал глазами Шервуда  — ни его, ни Нэнси не видать. Может, кто-нибудь из них сейчас дома, тогда я смогу позвонить из кабинета Шервуда.

Довольно много народу двинулось к дому доктора Фабиана; я повернулся и пошел в противоположную сторону.

20

No one answered the bell. I rang several times and waited, then finally tried the door and it was unlocked.

I went inside and closed the door behind me. The sound of its closing was muffled by the hushed solemnity of the hail that ran back to the kitchen.

“Anyone home?” I called.

Мне долго не отворяли. Я позвонил несколько раз, подождал, потом толкнул дверь  — она оказалась не запертой.

Я вошел в дом и затворил за собой дверь. Стук ее утонул в торжественной тишине, что стояла в прихожей и дальше, до самой кухни.

— Есть кто дома?  — крикнул я.

Somewhere a lone fly buzzed desperately, as if trying to escape, trapped against a window perhaps, behind a fold of drape. The sun spilled through the fanlights above the door to make a ragged pattern on the floor.

There was no answer to my hail, so I went down the hall and walked into the study. The phone stood on the heavy desk. The walls of books still seemed rich and wondrous. A half.