The Sand Ponies

Начало книги

A young girl sleeps in a small, drab room. In her dream she watches the surf beat against a rocky cliff, filling the tide pools and casting spray to the meadows above.

Far away a small buckskin horse lifts his head and listens in vain for the pounding of the sea.

The room is still and very dim. There is only one window, facing a light well, a brick-lined shaft down which little of the dawn can come. The noise and shouting in the apartment have subsided and the bedroom door is locked from inside.

The room has not cooled off during the night, but still holds the stale heat of yesterday, and the two children sleep with only sheets over them, the boy tossing fitfully. They are children too old to be sharing a room, but share they must, for there is no other, except their aunt and uncle’s, and a small ugly sitting room and a kitchen like the inside of a brown box. The whole apartment is like this, the wallpaper used and dirty looking, the ceiling paint colorless with grime, the windows small and unwashed, the carpets and furniture unpleasant to sit on and touch.

Читать дальше →