Читать книгу A Threefold Cord - Howard Goldenberg - Страница 16

Chapter Eleven

Snoth’s Saba sat at the breakfast table reading the newspaper. Something he read made him snort in surprise: “Golly, Snotho, listen to this!”

Snoth put on his pretending to be interested face. He did this whenever there was news that made Saba snort. Usually Snoth was not very interested in Saba’s news – like in Europe where the money was no good, or in the Middle East where no-one was much good, or in Africa where nothing was any good.

Snoth sat and looked interested while Saba read aloud: “Famous Vet Warns of Deadly Germ. Dr Vandersluys, world famous Cat Doctor, has lost a cat from his hospital. The cat carries the deadly HPV germ (which stands for Human Poison Virus). The missing cat, named Tiger … “

Suddenly Snoth was really interested.

Saba read on: “… Tiger could poison every person he comes near. And every cat that Tiger meets can catch and spread the deadly disease. The doctor warns: “There is no cure for this virus.”

Snoth stopped eating.

Saba said: “Eat your stew, Snoth. Placenta is so healthy. Eat up every little bit.”

Snoth ate his serve of placenta with polenta. Saba brought the meat home from the hospital and stewed it with garlic and rosemary and red wine. Usually Snoth loved this stew but today all he could think of were the words Tiger … Vandersluys … Warning.

Snoth thought some more: Maybe that is what the person in the cape meant by the word WARNING. Perhaps the person in the cape, the witch in the night – or whatever – was trying to save us from danger! What if Tiger has given the germ to all the other cats in the cat shelter? Every cat will be in danger. And every person who touches them. This is a problem for the Threefold Cord!

(Does anyone in this story have proper, normal parents? Only Jennifer seems to have a mother and a father in the story. Will we find out where Snoth’s parents are? And what about Nystagmus’ mum and dad? And what about little Willem? He seems to have no-one.

Will we ever find out? Does it matter?

And one more thing: Snoth carried the cat that has the deadly HPV germ. Does that mean Snoth will get sick and die?)