Читать книгу Clash of the Worlds - Ned Vizzini - Страница 17

The force of the water knocked both of the Walker sisters to the ground and pushed them thirty feet back, right off the walking path and on to the lawn of a nearby café and gift shop. It also scattered the cooked meat across the wharf.

Eleanor pushed herself to her feet and looked around frantically for Cordelia.

“Nell! Are you OK?” Cordelia asked, staggering to her feet a few yards away.

“I think so,” Eleanor said, trying out her arms and legs, shocked that she didn’t even feel bruised.

“That was close,” Cordelia said. “We almost got—”

“Fat Jagger!” Eleanor screamed, cutting off her sister.

Fat Jagger, still submerged from the waist down, towered above the wharf, his hair stringy and sopping. Salty ocean water dripped off his hairy torso and splashed on to the concrete wharf like a torrential rainstorm. When the colossus saw the Walkers, he grinned.

“Waaalk-eers,” he said.

“Fat Jagger!” Eleanor yelled again, running towards him.

Cordelia followed her.

Fat Jagger turned his attention towards the wharf landing, where bits of meat were still scattered about. He reached down and began deftly plucking clumps of meat off the ground with his thumb and forefinger. He popped them into his mouth, a grin still plastered on his huge face.

“Fat Jagger, you need to listen to me,” Cordelia shouted up at him. “You have to …”

But she didn’t get to finish, because she was suddenly interrupted by the whoop-whoop of a cop-car siren behind her.