The Future Homemakers of America. Laurie Graham
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Название: The Future Homemakers of America
Автор: Laurie Graham
Издательство: HarperCollins
Жанр: Современная зарубежная литература
isbn: 9780007393091
isbn:
I kept running. Audrey walked back in her own good time.
We had to clean the earth off our sneakers before we could get back into the car. I didn’t feel too good.
I said, ‘Jeez, Aud, now I wish we never had gone.’
‘Me too,’ she said. ‘It’s made me feel horny as hell, and Lance is standing the duty the next three nights. Still, mission accomplished. We marked her card. Saved the honour of the squadron.’
‘Fuck the squadron,’ Lois said. Using a word like that in front of her child. I had gone round to see her. Try to explain things, mend a few fences, but she wasn’t ready yet.
Saturday I picked Kath up and we drove to Downham. They had a cute little market there, sold eggs and stuff, laid out on tables under canvas canopies. Potatoes covered in dirt and all kinds of rabbit-food greenery. I wouldn’t have touched any of it for fear of disease, but it was fun to go look.
Kath said, ‘You’re quiet, Peg. You all right?’
I said, ‘I’m okay. Things on my mind.’
‘Have you?’ she said.
She was buying something called roe. It comes from a fish. There were seabirds sitting in a line along a roof. ‘Look at that,’ she said. ‘Must be bad weather coming in. You sure you don’t want any roe? That’s smashing on a bit of buttered toast.’
We walked on.
I said, ‘Friend of mine has been playing around. You know what I mean? Married woman. And I don’t want to see her go ruin her life.’
‘Well,’ she said, ‘I don’t see what you can do. I think I’ll get a bit of celery while I’m here.’
I said, ‘Her husband ever finds out, or the other wife, I don’t like to think. If I had that done to me, Vern ever played away, I’d kill him.’
‘But that’s different with men,’ she said. ‘That’s in their nature. They can’t hardly stop theirselves, what I’ve seen of it. That’s like trying to keep a tomcat from straying.’
I said, ‘Like hell it’s different. A man stands up and makes his vows, he oughta keep to them.’
My heart was pounding.
She said, ‘I agree. But how do you get them to do it? That’s the question. You can’t be watching them every minute.’
I was lost for words.
‘I tell you what,’ she said. ‘I always say to John Pharaoh, “Be good, and if you can’t be good, be careful. You bring trouble to my door, I shall get you spayded. Then you’ll be sorry.” Oh, there’s May Gotobed. Can we give her a ride home?’
I reported to Audrey, soon as I could.
I said, ‘I am in shock. I’m sure Kath don’t know what’s been going on, but then, I’m not sure how much she’d care, if she found out. She has some highly unusual ideas about husbands, I must say.’
‘Mm,’ Audrey said. ‘So we keep Lois under surveillance. And when she’s had time to cool down, I think I’ll make a gesture of reconciliation. I think I’ll invite her to join the Reading Circle I’m starting up. First book we’re gonna read is The Good Earth.
I said, ‘Yeah. I’m sure Lois wouldn’t miss that for the world.’
A letter come from Mom Dewey. Crystal’d had her picture took at school, looked real cute, so of course I’d sent one to his folks and one to mine.
‘Dear Vern’, she wrote,
I put Crystal on the ledge in the front kitchen, pride of place, and everybody that has seen her has remarked what a angelic face she has, spitting image of yourself aged five. We have had our troubles, your father brought in some grade ewes and some wethers, Romneys and Blue Faces, five got loose, got pasture bloat so bad they were goners, another one swallowed a French letter, excuse my language, and I’d sure like to know how one of them things got on Bolster Graze. If there’s a way to die young, you can depend on a sheep to find it. Good money thrown after bad. I had my way we’d sell up, open a yarn store in Skowhegan. Norton Beebe, you’ll remember Norton, pumped gas down in Palmyra, had a sister with a withered leg, he got killed out in Korea, he was in the infantry, National Guard, darned if I understand what this war is all about. I just give thanks that you’re not out there, risking your neck. Best regards to your wife. Your loving mother, Clementine Dewey.
Vern screwed it into a ball and sent it spinning across the room.
‘You read that?’ he said. ‘Not risking your neck? She ever hear about the Soviet Union? She ever hear a nucular capability? What’s she think? I’m sitting here on my finger, flying a desk?’
I said, ‘I dunno, Vern. How’s she supposed to know what you’re doing? I sure as hell don’t.’
‘Norton Beebe,’ he said. ‘Guess he’s some kinda hero now. Tell you, the trouble with Maine, folks there don’t see the big picture. They’re so busy thinking ’bout some yellowskin shot Norton, they don’t even know there’s a big Russian grizzly after their asses. I guess you gotta look at the world from 42,000 feet to understand.’
He was doing his sit-ups.
‘You seen anything of Lois?’
I wondered where he might be coming from with a question like that. ‘Yeah,’ I said. ‘I think I did. Why d’you ask?’
‘She say anything ’bout her birthday?’
‘No.’
‘Only, Herb’s fixing a surprise for her and he’s worried she might have gotten wind of it.’
‘She never said.’
‘He brung it down to Beer Call tonight,’ he said, ‘show us what he’d done so far. He’s carving her a roebuck. Amazing what that man can do with a knife. He’s got a real knack.’
I said, ‘You sure it’s a roebuck?’
‘Yup,’ he said.
I said, ‘You sure it’s not a giraffe?’
‘Nope,’ he said. ‘Legs were too short.’