Anne McCaffrey - Great Canine Chorus

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2024-11-24 0 0 69.54KB 12 页 5.9玖币

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PETE ROBERTS OF THE WILMINGTON, Delaware, K-9 Corps has as his partner a German

shep-herd named Wizard. One night, just after they took the beat, Wizard started acting itchy, nervous,

whiny. He was snappish, not like himself at all. He kept try-ing to pull Pete toward Seventh Street.

That wasn't the beat, as Wiz well knew. But Pete decided there might be a good reason. Wizard was a

canny dog; he could pick a culprit out of a crowd by the smell of fear the man exuded. And he'd saved

Pete from two muggings already this year. So, pro-testing, Pete let Wizard lead him to a block of

build-ings being torn down as part of an urban renewal program.

Wizard became more and more impatient with Pete's apprehensive, measured pace, and tried to tug him

into a jog. Pete began to feel worried, kind of sickly scared. Suddenly the dog mounted the worn stairs

of one of the buildings about to be demolished. He pawed at the door, whining.

Who's that? a voice asked, high and quavering like an old lady's. Pa? It couldn't be too old a female,

then.

Wizard barked sharply three times in the negative signal he'd been taught.

Hi, dog. Do you see my pa?

Wiz got down from the steps, looked up and down the street, then barked again three times.

Pa's so late, and I'm so hungry, the voice said.

Pete, who had eaten well an hour earlier, was suddenly overwhelmed with hunger-a sullen kind of

stomach cramp that he'd experienced in Korea when his unit was cut off for four days. The kind of

grip-ping pangs you get when you're hungry all the time.

"Lady, I'm going down to the deli on the corner. I'll be right back with something to tide you over till your

pa gets back." Pete made the announcement before he realized it. He left Wizard to guard the door.

He ordered a sub with no onions (somehow he knew she wouldn't want them), two cokes and a banana.

I'm in the back room, said the voice when he and Wizard entered the hall.

Pete had had the distinct impression the voice had come from the front of the building. It was too thin to

have carried far. The stench in the filthy hall sickened Pete. No matter how many years he might spend

on the force, he'd never get used to the odor of poverty. Maybe it was the stink that brought a growl

from Wizard.

Pete pushed open the back door and entered the pitifully furnished room. On an old armchair by the

window was a wasted little figure, like a broken doll thrown down by a careless child, limbs askew. By

now he expected a girl, a child, but this was such a little girl!

Wizard got down on his belly, licking his lips nerv-ously. He crawled carefully across the dirty floor. He

sniffed at the tiny hand on the shabby arm of the chair, whined softly. The little band did not move away,

nor toward him, either.

What kind of a father, Pete fumed to himself, would leave a kid, a mere baby, alone in a place like this?

I'm no baby, mister. I'm nine years old, she in-formed him indignantly.

Pete apologized contritely, blaming his error on the glare from the single window. He wouldn't have

thought her more than five, six at the outside. She was so pitifully underdeveloped. She was clean, as

were her shred of a dress and the old blanket on which she lay, but the rest of the room was filthy. Her

pinched face had a curious, calm beauty to it.

When Pete knelt beside her, he saw her eyes were filmed and sightless. And when she spoke, her mouth

did not move.

He found himself breaking off small pieces of the sub and feeding them to her. She sipped the Coke

through a straw and a look of intense pleasure crossed her face.

I knew I remembered how wonderful it tasted, she said. But not with her lips.

The truth dawned on Pete; this child was a tele-path. Impossible? He hadn't actually believed any of that

crap. But there was no other explanation.

"You aren't talking," he said. "You don't make a sound."

I am too talking, answered the child soundlessly.

And you're answering.

Pete gulped, hastily trying to mend matters. "You just don't speak the usual way."

I do everything kind of different. At least my pa's always complaining I do. Her head turned slowly

to-ward him. You don't suppose something's happened to Pa, do you? I can't hear very far away when

I'm hungry.

Guiltily, Pete fed her another bite. "When did you eat last?"

Pa was home this morning. But all we had was bread.

Pete vowed passionately to himself that he was going to see Welfare immediately.

Oh, you mustn't! pleaded.the soundless voice.

Wizard, ears flattened, growled menacingly at Pete. She was clearly frightened of Welfare. They'd take

me away, like they took my sister, and put me in a barred place and I'd never hear any birds or see Pa.

They might cut me up 'cause my body doesn't work right. She still spoke without sound.

"Aw, honey..."

My name's Maria, not honey.

"Maria, you got it all wrong. Wizard, you tell her.

Welfare helps people. You'd have a clean bed and birds right outside the window."

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Anne McCaffrey - Great Canine Chorus

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