A Summer Affair [antikvár]

CHAPTER ONE 1 He was walking downstairs to the laundry. It was dark there and now and again he had to probe with his foot, and that irritated him because, as usual, he was in a hurry. Then his hand found the switch and he turned on the light. The mice were sitting in their cages and flashing their huge incisors. 'They've grown again, David,' a young man in a white overall informed him. In spite of the young man's dark glasses he recognized him reliably as his assistant Mencl. 'Real monsters they are!' He seemed nervous, as usual. That's okay. I don't mind them growing so long as they're alive. Better be huge than not be at all.' 'It's not natural!' his mother spoke up. She was sitting there in a wine-red dress with white lace on what looked like a school bench or perhaps a church pew. 'Can't you see that it is against God's will?' 'Leave the boy alone!' his father shouted at her. 'He's got to start somehow. Let's see what he achieves.' 'David,' his mother insisted, 'why are you doing this when you know that you're hurting me?' She was pale, she had changed so much he scarcely recognized her. 'I'm doing it for you, too, Mother. I don't want to lose you a second time.' He instantly realized that he'd said something he shouldn't have said, but before he could put it right he felt something warm licking the nape of his neck. 'Don't turn round, David!' his mother shouted. But already he'd seen the animal; it had evidently gnawed through the wire of its cage, he could feel its hot 7