Daf: переводы

→Down she fell, tumbling through brambles and leafless bushes, bumping her knee on a tree root, grabbing for branches to stop herself, finally coming to land half in a stream.

→The forest grew thicker. She’d gone this far before, but never at night. The trees were stalking shadows that reached for her with twiggy fingers, snagging her patchwork jacket. She stumbled through long, damp grass and, as the forest grew even thicker, rotting logs and drifts of dead leaves. She ducked around another tree, and the ground disappeared from under her feet.

→Fer cut through the scrub, then picked up the stream again, panting now, and brushing hair out of her eyes.

→This wasn’t wild forest, it was just a strip of trees and bushes between two fields that, in the summer, would be rustling with head-high corn or dark green soybeans. In the distance, Fer saw the dark outline of a couple of silos and outbuildings, and the porch light of a farmhouse. Far away a dog howled, a lonesome moan that made the night feel darker, wilder.

→She’d never been out this late before. The world felt different under the sliver-silver moon. The fields were more empty. The shadows were deep and mysterious. As Fer ran along the edge of the long driveway that led away from her grandma’s house, her footsteps sounded loud, crunch-crunch-crunch-ing on the gravel. The chilly night air went into her lungs and made her feel lighter, almost like she could fly. She ran past the twin rows of oak trees lining the driveway. Then down the road a long way until she got to a stream that cut through a muddy field, slowing down now because the footing was tricky along here. Across another road and through a patch of scrubby forest.

→Quick as thought, before Grand-Jane could turn around, Fer opened the door and flung herself back out into the night.

→Grand-Jane’s warm, red-and-yellow kitchen closed around her. Fer felt like a bird bashing itself against the walls of a box.

→Fer started to unbutton her patchwork jacket, then paused. All day tomorrow cleaning the stillroom? That meant dusting shelves, sweeping out spider webs, sorting through hundreds of tincture jars and bags of crumbling herbs, and more lessons on herbology and healing spells. And Grand-Jane’s sharp eyes watching her the whole time, as if Fer were about to burst into flames and her grandma had to be there, just in case, to dump cold water on her.

→“Well, Miss Sullen, tomorrow’s Saturday,” Grand-Jane said. “You’ll spend it with me cleaning the stillroom.” She turned to the stove, put her oven mitts back on, and carried the casserole dish to the red-painted kitchen table. “Take off your coat,” she said, her back to Fer. “And come eat your dinner.”

→Grand-Jane looked her over with sharp blue eyes. “And your school’s principal called. Apparently you had a run-in with that Torvald boy again.”

→No, she couldn’t, not after being cooped up all winter. House, bus, school, bus, house. The same thing every single day, except on the weekends when it was just house, house, house, because she and her grandma never went anywhere. She had to get out under the sky or she got so twitchy, she felt like she might twitch out of her own skin.

→“Yes, you can,” Grand-Jane said.

→“I can’t,” Fer said, staying by the door.

→Grand-Jane released her breath and opened her eyes. “We have been through this, Jennifer,” she said sharply. “It is not safe for you to be outside alone. You must come home immediately after school.”

→Fer hunched her shoulders, ready for the shouting.

→“Oh, for crying out loud,” Grand-Jane muttered. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

→It wasn’t a question. Grand-Jane knew what time it was. Fer glanced at the clock that hung on the wall beside the fridge. “Seven thirty-five?”

→At the sound of the door closing, her grandma, at the stove, turned and glared. Carefully she set down a covered casserole dish. “What time is it.”

→Oh well, might as well get it over with. Fer went up the steps and into the kitchen.

→When she went in the door, Grand-Jane was going to have a conniption. A really hairy one.