"Bowes-ShadowAndGunman" - читать интересную книгу автора (Bowes Richard)

Uncle Bob poured me a beer. "From what I see, you're not much interested in
school. College has gotten really expensive. Maybe you should think of the navy.
Three years, see the world."

"My boards and SATs are fine. I'll probably go to BU."

Jim said, "Bob went to college and law school and is broke. Mike graduated from
high school and has finally got his head above water. Me, I got an eighth grade
education and I'm the one everyone comes to for dough. The thing is, now there
is no dough." We were sitting in his twelve room house. Neither of his brothers
seemed to be hurting.

"Granddad put aside money. My mother. . . ."

"Your mother raised an aristocrat," said Bob, sounding aggrieved. "Boot camp
would be a change for you."

"Kevin never listens to anyone. Maybe he's in love," said Mike, giving me the
dead-eyed glance cops reserve for outsiders. "You got a girl friend, Kev ?"

How to explain about Stacey and myself? I just shrugged. But I started thinking
of her. Then Jim remarked, "Dad used to say when he took off his belt, 'Whip a
young dog who's too big for his pants and puppy drawers fit him fine.'" They
laughed but in their eyes, I saw no joking.

When I was small, they had sometimes intimidated me. Even at sixteen, I was
skinny and my uncles were all big. But I remembered what my mother had said
about them and their old man. Full of pills and booze, I just stared the way my
grandfather did in the picture. For that moment, I was not alone. They choked
like they had glimpsed my Shadow.

It was late when I saw Tay and my grandmother home. All my thoughts ran to
Stacey and I slipped away. Connections were slow. It was alter one when I looked
up at dim lights flickering in her second floor windows. I had to knock for some
time before Max appeared. His pupils small as BBs, he waved me in like I was
expected.

"Stacey?" I wanted to know. He ignored the question.

Lisa sat in the kitchen with a trace of drool beside her mouth, sorting pills.
"Once my inhibitions got broken down, Dr. X was able to show me that I'm the
woman of situations. Yesterday, for instance, the situation was that everyone
needs to get sleep. So I cashed prescriptions for these." She handed me a pill
shaped like a torpedo.

Thelonius played upstairs. "Isolation and realization," said Max and poured
Johnny Walker. "Drink up." I marveled at how little effect any of this had on me
and my Shadow.