"Blume, Judy - Just As Long As We're Together" - читать интересную книгу автора (Blume Judy)

Rachel looked skeptical as she watchчd the two of them. I learned that word-skeptical-from her. It means to question or doubt.
"What's new with Maizie?" I asked Alison.
Alison put Maizie down and giggled. "She told me the silliest story."
"What story?" Rachel asked.
"I'm not sure it's true," Alison said as she poured three glasses of grape juice and set a box of pretzels on the table.
"Tell it to us anyway," Rachel said, taking a handful of pretzels.
"Well . . ." Alison began. She told us this story
about her stepfather, Leon, who took Maizie for
a walk in the woods. While they were walking
Leon tripped over a branch and fell into the
brook. He got soaked, which Maizie thought was
a big joke.
"That's the whole story?" Rachel asked. "Yes." Alison looked at me. "Of course, Maizie might have made it up. Sometimes when she's bored she sits around making up stories."
Rachel still wasn't convinced and Alison could tell. "I suppose we could ask Leon if it's true," she said.
Alison pressed the button on the intercom.
Every house in Palfrey's Pond has an intercom. Ours doesn't work but probably when Dad comes home he'll fix it.
"Hi, Leon. . ." Alison said. "I'm home."
"Be right down," a man's voice answered.
In a minute Leon came down the stairs and into the kitchen. He was tall and mostly bald.
"Hello, Pumpkin," Leon said to AlisOn, ruffling her hair.
Pumpkin? I thought.
"This is my stepfather, Leon Wishnik," Alison said, introducing us.
Leon smiled. He had very nice teeth. I notice everybody's teeth. Mom says it's because I wear braces. She says once they come off I won't be so interested in teeth. But Dad says my interest in teeth could mean that I want to be a dentist.
"Glad to meet you, Rachel," Leon said to me.
"I'm Stephanie," I told him.
He laughed. "Well, glad to meetyou, Stephanie. And glad to meet you, too, Rachel." Leon lifted the lid off the pot on the stove and stirred. It smelled great.
"Maizie told me about your walk," Alison said to Leon. "Is it true . . . did you really trip and fall into the brook?"
Leon turned away from the stove and wagged his finger at Maizie. "I asked you not to tell anyone about that," he said to her.
Maizie ran under the kitchen table to hide.
"Then it's true?" Alison asked.
"Yes," Leon said. "My shoes will never be the same."
"Are you saying that your dog really talks?" Rachel asked Leon. I stared at her. She'd lowered her voice by an octave and sounded exactly like her mother. I could tell Leon was impressed. Tonight, while they were eating dinner, he would probably say to Alison, That Rachel. . . she's certainly mature for her age. He wouldn't know that this morning she was shaking with fear over the idea of junior high.
"Yes," Leon said, sighing, "Maizie talks .
usually too much." He rested the wooden spoon on a saucer. "I've got to get back to work now. Nice to meet you, Stephanie and Rachel."
"Nice to meet you, too," we said.
Rachel still had a handful of pretzels and was licking the salt off them one at a time. She always licks pretzels until they're soggy.
Alison asked if we wanted to see her room. "But I'm warning you. . . it's incredibly ugly."
"So what'd you think?" I asked Rachel, as I walked her home from Alison's house.
"Obviously she's very insecure," Rachel said. "That's why she uses that talking dog story."
"But Maizie can talk," I said. "You heard what Leon said."
"You're so gullible, Steph!" Rachel said. "But I suppose that's part of your charm."
I had no idea what gullible meant and I wasn't about to ask so I just nodded and said, "It runs in my family."
Rachel gave me one of her skeptical looks, then said, "Well. . . I think we should try to help her get adjusted here. I think we should try to be her friends."
"I think so, too," I said.
7.
Bruce.
Bruce's fifth grade teacher is Mrs. Stein. I also had her. But she taught fourth grade then. "She remembers you, Steph.. ." Bruce said at breakfast the following Friday. "She said you came in second in the reading contest." He reached across the table for the box of Cheerios.
"Rachel came in first," I told him, as I buttered my toast. I like my toast very dark. I try to catch it just before it burns and is ruined.
"Mrs. Stein says she remembers Rachel, too," Bruce said.
"Rachel's teachers always remember her," I said. In fourth grade Rachel started reading the kinds of books her sister, Jessica, was reading for