"Brown, Dale - Patrick 2 - Day of the Cheetah" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brown Dale)

"That was all you did? Sports?"
"No, I had lots of dates. I went out every Friday and Sat
urday night. My mom and Frank-that's my stepdad-were i
home only one week out of five, so I had the run of the place.
Except for the maid, of course."
"Tell me about your dates, Kenneth."
Again, that smile. "I saw Cathy Sawyer the most. We've
been going out almost all year. Nothing special . . . a movie,
dinner once in a while. I helped her with her homework, she
can't seem to pick up calculus no matter how hard I try to
explain it to her."

Listening to him, watching him, it was like hearing someone i
not just talk about but actually live another life in front of you.
They had done a complete job, it seemed, on Andrei Maraklov.
Now he was Kenneth James. "Were you ever passionate with
her, Kenneth?
Suddenly his eyes grew dark. "Ken?"
"She doesn't want me that way." His voice had been deep,
DAY OF THE CHEETAH 13
harsh. She touched his shoulder-his body seemed to have
turned to ice.
She doesn't want me," he repeated in a dead-sounding
voice. "No one does. My dad's an alcoholic schizoid. People
think some genetic germ is going to rub off from me onto them
if I get too close. Everyone thinks I'll whack out on them just
like my dad whacked out on his family."
Whack out? More mumbo-jumbo. "Ken .
"All they want is my brains and my money." His body was
now as hard, as tense as his voice, his eyes were hot. " 'Help
me with my homework, Ken' 'Help us with the fund-
raiser, James' 'Come out for the team, Ken' Ask,
ask, ask. But when I want something, they all run away."
"It's only because you are better than they are, Kenneth--
"Who cares about that?" It was like a cry. She gasped at
the anger in his face. "When am I going to get what I want?
When am I ever going to feel accepted by them . '. . ?" He
took hold of her right hand and squeezed hard. "Huh? When?"
He tossed her hand aside and rolled up out of bed. She gath-
ered a sheet around her and slid out on the -other side.
I was glad when they asked me to be valedictorian
because then I could turn them down. What's the difference?
My mom was going to be in New Zealand or some other place,
something too important to cancel even for her only surviving
son's high school graduation-and my dad's dead or in a gutter
somewhere . . . Nobody that I cared about was going to hear
my speech, so I arranged to have my Regents diploma mailed

to me. When I told my mom, instead of being angry, she sent
me first-class plane tickets to Oahu and five thousand bucks. I