Читать книгу Snotty Saves the Day - Tod Davies - Страница 19

Chapter V

SNOWFLAKE

There was a pause while Snotty considered this.

“Yyyyeeerrrrrgggghhh,” he said, at last.

The voice considered this. “I’ll take that as a yes,” it finally said. And a nose—or something like a nose, anyway—snuffled at Snotty’s back. Snotty screeched, which came out “bbbllluuuurrrgggghhh.” Meanwhile the snuffly thing pushed here and there until it got a hold on Snotty’s jeans. These it grabbed between its teeth and with a SSQQQUUUIRRRCCCCHH! yanked him up out of the mud hole, dragged him through the sludge and deposited him on a rocky path.

“There,” the voice said in a pleased sort of way. “That’s better.”

Snotty gagged and spat out some muck. He sat up and, wiping the mud out of his eyes with his muddy forearm, looked at his rescuer.

This was a small white and silver horse.

Snotty blinked with surprise. The horse blinked back. It seemed just as surprised as he.

“Well,” the horse said. “Not what I expected at all!”

But then Snotty, to his great relief, recognized the little horse.

“I KNOW you!” he said, jumping up and down on the rocky path in his excitement. “You’re a PONY! I RODE you. At a funfair. I snuck in without paying. You had a saddle and a saddlebag and everything. And your name on the saddlebag. It was...it was...it was...” Snotty snapped his fingers together, trying to remember.

“Snowflake?” suggested the horse.

“That’s right!” Snotty said. “Snowflake! Exactly! But what are you doing here?”

“I remember, too,” Snowflake reminisced, nudging Snotty with his muzzle. They started down the path together. “You kicked me when no one was looking.”

Snotty looked ashamed. It was true. He had kicked Snowflake. But somebody had been looking—that was the whole point. Stan and the boys, sneaking into the fair after him, had stood there jeering at him for enjoying himself. Snotty had to do something. Anyone could have seen that.

“I didn’t want to kick you, exactly.” He tried to explain himself but it came out all garbled. “Besides,” he said, trying again, “I knew you wouldn’t mind, being so much more mature than them, and all.” But this sounded too whiny and wheedly, even to him. Finally, he gave up.

“Well, never mind,” Snowflake said.

“Anyway,” Snotty said lamely, “I’m glad to see you again.” But Snowflake didn’t answer and Snotty followed him in silence down a particularly steep and rocky stretch of the path. Snotty skidded once, right at the bottom, but Snowflake offered his shoulder, and Snotty steadied himself. That was when he saw the wound between the little horse’s eyes.

It wasn’t so much of a wound as a scar that hadn’t healed right. It was scraped red and raw in the center, and glittered with silver around the edge.

“What happened to your head?” Snotty said, interested. Snowflake looked unhappy at the question and didn’t answer. His green eyes searched Snotty’s face.

“Don’t you remember?” Snowflake said.

“What?” Snotty asked, astonished. “What do you mean?” Did Snowflake mean it had happened at the fair?

But instead of answering, the little horse turned away.

Puzzled, Snotty kept walking. They were on level ground now, where the path curved through another grassy meadow. Up ahead was a huge black wrought iron gate.

From the distance came that sound again. BOOM. BOOM. BOOM.

“What’s that?”

“Have you forgotten that, too?” Snowflake said in his gentle way. Then he broke into a trot.

“Look,” Snotty said, running to catch up. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. You must have the wrong boy. You...”

They neared the gate. It was an old thing, rusting and spiked, but it was held shut by a shining new chain.

“Sssssh,” Snowflake said. “Not now.” The little horse stared at the gate, his eyes narrowed.

Leaning up against the fence was a placard, with writing so new that Snotty could smell the paint. It said:

THE GARDEN OF EARTHLY DELIGHTS

No Nymphs

No Devas

No Angels

No Sprites/Fairies/Pixies

Absolutely NO Unicorns²⁶ Please stay on the path at all times. Thank you, the NEW MANAGEMENT

“Two singles, please,” Snotty heard Snowflake say in his patient voice. (He wondered what a Deva was, but he didn’t like to ask.) A yellow Sheep with red-rimmed eyes peered out at them from a ticket booth.

“Mmmmmaaaaaaaa?” it said suspiciously.

Snowflake gave an indifferent shrug. “As you see,” he said.

The Sheep stared at Snotty. “Bah,” it said. But the little horse ignored this.

As they passed, the Sheep glared at them.

“I don’t like the way he’s looking at me,” Snotty muttered.

“Ignore him,” Snowflake said.

Instead, Snotty glared back at the Sheep. But the Sheep wasn’t looking at him, it was looking at Snowflake, and it clearly didn’t like what it saw. As they walked through the turnstile into the Garden, though, Snotty forgot all about that, and concentrated, as he always did, on what was ahead of him, instead of on what was behind.