"Andrews, V C - crystal" - читать интересную книгу автора (Andrews V.C)

were small, but his fingers were thick.
He was an accountant, and she said she was a
housewife, but they had long ago decided teat was
a job, too, and she should be paid a salary for it
She had even gotten raises when they had good
years. They couldn't stop talking about them
selves. It was as if they wanted to get out their
entire lives in one meeting.
The best thing I could say about them was that
there was absolutely nothing subtle, contrived, or
threatening about them. What you saw was what
you got. I liked that. It made me feel at ease. At
times during the interview, it was more as if I was
there to decide if/would adopt them.
"Everything is just too serious here," Thelma
told me toward the end of our session. She gri
maced, folding her mouth into a disapproving
frown. "It's just too serious a place for a young
person to think of as any sort of home. I don't
hear any laughter. I don't see any smiles."
Then she suddenly grew very serious herself
and leaned toward me to whisper. "'Vbu don't
have a boyfriend yet, do you? I'd hate to break up
a budding romance."
V. C. ANDREWS
"Hardly," I told her. "Most of the boys here are
quite immature." She liked that and was immediately
relieved.
"Good," she said. "Then it's settled. You'll
come home with us, and we'll never speak of
anything unpleasant again. We don't believe in
sadness---if you don't think about the bad things
in life, you'll find they all just go away. You'll see."
_ I should have known what that meant, but for
once in; lay short life, I decided to stop analyzing
everyone and just enjoy the company of someone,
especially someone who wanted to be my mother.

10

1

A New Beginning

foing home with the Morrises was like taking a
guided tour of their lives on a sightseeing bus.
They drove a moderately priced Sedan chosen,
Karl said, for its gas efficiency and for its high
rating in Consumer Reports.
"Karlmakes the decisions about everything we