The Leftovers. Tom Perrotta

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СКАЧАТЬ grimly amused by the sordid details included in the articles, but also embarrassed on behalf of her brother, who’d cast his lot with a man who turned out to be a charlatan and a pig.

      “Not today,” he said. “I guess they used up all the good stuff.”

      “I wonder what Tom will do.”

      They’d been speculating about this for the past few days but hadn’t gotten too far. It was hard to imagine what Tom might be thinking when they didn’t know where he was, what he was doing, or even if he was still involved with the Healing Hug Movement.

      “I don’t know. He’s probably pretty—”

      They stopped talking when Aimee walked into the kitchen. Jill was relieved to see that her friend was wearing pajama bottoms—it wasn’t always the case—though the relative modesty of this morning’s outfit was undercut by a cleavage-baring camisole. Aimee opened the refrigerator and peered into it for a long time, tilting her head as if something fascinating was going on in there. Then she pulled out a carton of eggs and turned toward the table, her face soft and sleepy, her hair a glorious mess.

      “Mr. Garvey,” she said, “any chance you could whip up one of those yummy omelettes?”

      AS USUAL, they took the long way to school, ducking behind the Safeway to smoke a quick joint—Aimee did her best not to set foot inside Mapleton High without some sort of buzz going—then heading across Reservoir Road to see if anyone interesting happened to be hanging out at Dunkin’ Donuts. The answer, not surprisingly, turned out to be no—unless you thought old men gnawing on crullers qualified as interesting—but the moment they poked their heads in, Jill was overcome by a wicked sugar craving.

      “You mind?” she asked, glancing sheepishly toward the counter. “I didn’t have any breakfast.”

      “I don’t mind. It’s not my fat ass.”

      “Hey.” Jill swatted her in the arm. “My ass isn’t fat.”

      “Not yet,” Aimee told her. “Have a few more donuts.”

      Unable to decide between the glazed and the jelly, Jill split the difference and ordered both. She would’ve been perfectly happy to eat on the run, but Aimee insisted on getting a table.

      “What’s the hurry?” she asked.

      Jill checked the time on her cell phone. “I don’t wanna be late for second period.”

      “I have gym,” Aimee said. “I don’t care if I miss that.”

      “I have a Chem test. Which I’m probably gonna fail.”

      “You always say that, and you always get As.”

      “Not this time,” Jill said. She’d skipped too many classes in the past few weeks, and had been stoned for too many of the ones she’d managed to attend. Some subjects mixed okay with weed, but Chemistry wasn’t one of them. You get high and start thinking about electrons, and you can end up a long way from where you’re supposed to be. “This time I’m screwed.”

      “Who cares? It’s just a stupid test.”

      I do, Jill wanted to say, but she wasn’t sure if she meant it. She used to care—used to care a lot—and hadn’t quite gotten used to the feeling of not caring, though she was doing her best.

      “You know what my mom told me?” Aimee said. “She said that when she was in high school, girls could get out of gym just for having their period. She said there was this one teacher, this Neanderthal football coach, and she told him every class that she had cramps, and he always said, Okay, go sit in the bleachers. The guy never even noticed.”

      Jill laughed, even though she’d heard the story before. It was one of the few things she knew about Aimee’s mother, besides the fact that she was an alcoholic who’d disappeared on October 14th, leaving her teenage daughter alone with a stepfather she didn’t like or trust.

      “You want a bite?” Jill held out her jelly donut. “It’s really good.”

      “That’s okay. I’m stuffed. I can’t believe I ate that whole omelette.”

      “Don’t blame me.” Jill licked a tiny jewel of jelly off the tip of her thumb. “I tried to warn you.”

      Aimee’s expression turned serious, even a bit stern.

      “You shouldn’t make fun of your father. He’s a really nice guy.”

      “I know.”

      “And he’s not even a bad cook.”

      Jill didn’t argue. Compared to her mother, her father was a terrible cook, but Aimee had no way of knowing that.

      “He tries,” she said.

      She scarfed down her glazed donut in three quick bites—it was so airy inside, almost like there was nothing beneath the sugary coating—then gathered up her trash.

      “Ugh,” she said, dreading the prospect of the test she was about to take. “I guess we better go.”

      Aimee studied her for a moment. She glanced at the display case behind the counter—tiers of donuts arrayed in their metal baskets, iced and sprinkled and powdered and plain and full of sweet surprises—and then back at Jill. A mischievous smile broke slowly across her face.

      “You know what?” she said. “I think I will have something to eat. Maybe some coffee, too. You want coffee?”

      “We don’t have time.”

      “Sure we do.”

      “What about my test?”

      “What about it?”

      Before Jill could reply, Aimee was out of her seat, moving toward the counter, her jeans so tight and her stride so liquid that everyone in the place turned to stare.

      I have to go, Jill thought.

      A feeling of unreality came over her just then, a sudden awareness of being trapped in a bad dream, that panicky sense of helplessness, as if she possessed no will of her own.

      But this was no dream. All she had to do was stand up and start walking. And yet she remained frozen in her pink plastic seat, smiling foolishly as Aimee turned and mouthed the word Sorry, though it was clear from the look on her face that she wasn’t sorry at all.

      Bitch, Jill thought. She wants me to fail.

      AT MOMENTS like this—and there were more of them than she would have liked to admit—Jill wondered what she was doing, how she’d allowed herself to get so tangled up with someone as selfish and irresponsible as Aimee. It wasn’t healthy.

      And it had happened so quickly. They’d only gotten to know each other a few months ago, at the beginning of summer, two girls working side by side in a failing frozen yogurt store, chatting during the slow times, some of which lasted for hours.

      They were wary of each other at first, conscious of their membership in different tribes—Aimee СКАЧАТЬ