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.Permission gained, within moments Emma had squeezed her way among the crowd standing at the edge of the marketplace beside the low, spiked iron railings of the Corn Exchange.She watched, spellbound.Everything around her – the incessant chatter and prattle of the town square – seemed to recede, to fall away, to drift from her consciousness.It was a puppet show and oh, how Emma loved a puppet show.She pushed herself forward through the crowd, ignoring the grumbles of other children and admonishing tuts from their parents.Emma only had eyes and ears for the puppet show dazzling and shining before her like some kind of jewel in that dull, grey northern town.A cold gust of wind blew in occasionally from the moors, but Emma did not feel it.She warmed herself in front of the brightly coloured little theatre stall as surely as if it had been a brazier full of burning coals.The show exceeded her expectations, the puppets moving with a grace that Emma admired all the more for knowing that she would never share it.The costumes were exquisite, making the dainty puppets look like the most delicate of tropical birds or brilliantly coloured insects.It was like a dream, a lovely, lovely dream.Emma’s mother tried several times to tug her away, but it would have taken a carthorse to pull her, and Mrs Reynolds was a petite and rather spindly woman.So she gave up and said she would return for Emma in ten minutes and that she was to come then, no matter what was happening in the silly show.But Emma was not even listening to her.Why would she listen to her mother when there was the beautiful harlequin puppet dancing and prancing before her, pirouetting and leaping, bowing and twirling? Mrs Reynolds sighed and left, determined to get on while her daughter was preoccupied.Emma gave herself up to the puppet show entirely.The music had stopped now and the puppets were talking, but Emma wasn’t interested in the story and she wished that the puppet master wouldn’t keep putting on those silly voices.It was all so ugly, and yet the children around her seemed so intent on laughter.She didn’t find the puppets funny in the least and resented the attempts of the puppet master to garner laughs and coarse guffaws, when all she wanted was to see the beautiful puppets dance and twirl.Mrs Reynolds did eventually come back and by chance her return coincided with the end of the show.She was relieved to forego the scene that would no doubt have taken place had she insisted that Emma leave before it was finished.She wondered how she had produced such a wilful daughter.Emma put up no resistance to leaving.She felt a terrible sadness when the curtain fell, and the greyness of the town seemed to seep back into the world around her.But this feeling would only have been intensified had she stayed to see the puppet master pack away the puppets.Emma wanted to remember them as they were in the show.She trailed behind her mother, who was just explaining that they should hurry across the road to Madame Claudette’s Hat and Ribbon Shop – for they both needed new hats for their cousin’s wedding – when Emma took one last look back towards the puppet show and walked straight into somebody.‘I’m so sorry,’ she said.She had bumped into a boy of about her own age, but he made no reply.He was staring at her in the most peculiar manner and at first Emma thought she might have stunned him in some way.There was something about the boy’s vacant expression that made Emma shudder.His pale grey, red-rimmed eyes stared out without any hint of life or soul at work behind them.It took Emma a few moments to realise that she knew him.His name was Gerald, though it was only with considerable difficulty that she could match this sad creature to the boy who had shown her such interest at the church fete.Gerald, like Emma, was quite portly, but he was handsome in spite of this.Somehow this made his present state all the more troubling.He stretched out his arms towards her, opened his mouth and moaned loudly.Emma backed away with a shriek that caused her mother to stop in her tracks and turn round.‘You should pay attention to where you are going, young lady,’ said a voice to Emma’s right.Emma turned and saw a formidable-looking woman in a large and rather macabre hat with curving feathers that reminded her of a huge spider.‘You might have knocked poor Gerald over, you silly girl [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
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.Permission gained, within moments Emma had squeezed her way among the crowd standing at the edge of the marketplace beside the low, spiked iron railings of the Corn Exchange.She watched, spellbound.Everything around her – the incessant chatter and prattle of the town square – seemed to recede, to fall away, to drift from her consciousness.It was a puppet show and oh, how Emma loved a puppet show.She pushed herself forward through the crowd, ignoring the grumbles of other children and admonishing tuts from their parents.Emma only had eyes and ears for the puppet show dazzling and shining before her like some kind of jewel in that dull, grey northern town.A cold gust of wind blew in occasionally from the moors, but Emma did not feel it.She warmed herself in front of the brightly coloured little theatre stall as surely as if it had been a brazier full of burning coals.The show exceeded her expectations, the puppets moving with a grace that Emma admired all the more for knowing that she would never share it.The costumes were exquisite, making the dainty puppets look like the most delicate of tropical birds or brilliantly coloured insects.It was like a dream, a lovely, lovely dream.Emma’s mother tried several times to tug her away, but it would have taken a carthorse to pull her, and Mrs Reynolds was a petite and rather spindly woman.So she gave up and said she would return for Emma in ten minutes and that she was to come then, no matter what was happening in the silly show.But Emma was not even listening to her.Why would she listen to her mother when there was the beautiful harlequin puppet dancing and prancing before her, pirouetting and leaping, bowing and twirling? Mrs Reynolds sighed and left, determined to get on while her daughter was preoccupied.Emma gave herself up to the puppet show entirely.The music had stopped now and the puppets were talking, but Emma wasn’t interested in the story and she wished that the puppet master wouldn’t keep putting on those silly voices.It was all so ugly, and yet the children around her seemed so intent on laughter.She didn’t find the puppets funny in the least and resented the attempts of the puppet master to garner laughs and coarse guffaws, when all she wanted was to see the beautiful puppets dance and twirl.Mrs Reynolds did eventually come back and by chance her return coincided with the end of the show.She was relieved to forego the scene that would no doubt have taken place had she insisted that Emma leave before it was finished.She wondered how she had produced such a wilful daughter.Emma put up no resistance to leaving.She felt a terrible sadness when the curtain fell, and the greyness of the town seemed to seep back into the world around her.But this feeling would only have been intensified had she stayed to see the puppet master pack away the puppets.Emma wanted to remember them as they were in the show.She trailed behind her mother, who was just explaining that they should hurry across the road to Madame Claudette’s Hat and Ribbon Shop – for they both needed new hats for their cousin’s wedding – when Emma took one last look back towards the puppet show and walked straight into somebody.‘I’m so sorry,’ she said.She had bumped into a boy of about her own age, but he made no reply.He was staring at her in the most peculiar manner and at first Emma thought she might have stunned him in some way.There was something about the boy’s vacant expression that made Emma shudder.His pale grey, red-rimmed eyes stared out without any hint of life or soul at work behind them.It took Emma a few moments to realise that she knew him.His name was Gerald, though it was only with considerable difficulty that she could match this sad creature to the boy who had shown her such interest at the church fete.Gerald, like Emma, was quite portly, but he was handsome in spite of this.Somehow this made his present state all the more troubling.He stretched out his arms towards her, opened his mouth and moaned loudly.Emma backed away with a shriek that caused her mother to stop in her tracks and turn round.‘You should pay attention to where you are going, young lady,’ said a voice to Emma’s right.Emma turned and saw a formidable-looking woman in a large and rather macabre hat with curving feathers that reminded her of a huge spider.‘You might have knocked poor Gerald over, you silly girl [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]