"Cooney, Caroline B - Janie Johnson 03 - Voice on the Radio" - читать интересную книгу автора (Cooney Caroline B)

And Jodie was happy, thinking: It's over.
S Х S
It was cold out, the kind of cold Reeve liked. He was in shirtsleeves, but the cold felt good. He loved his bare arms in winter.
Reeve often rehearsed the janies in the dark. In front of people, he couldn't even rehearse inside his head. Alone in the dark, he could move his lips, or even whisper, getting the flow.
I have to stop that, too, he thought. I'm doing this for Janie and I don't even get to tell her what a great guy I am. No fair making sacrifices when the sacrificed-for doesn't know.
His physics professor walked by.
The science building was next door to the administration building, but still, this late-Reeve was a little surprised. "Hi, Dr. Brookner."
"Reeve," said the professor with pleasure. Considering there were five hundred students in the lecture, the labs were run by assistants, and tests were corrected by grad students, it was remarkable that Dr. Brookner knew who Reeve was. "Doing a janie tonight?" asked the professor. "My wife and I have been fascinated by those."
Adult listeners?,Professors? Reeve was stunned and pleased. "It doesn't seem like your kind of station," said Reeve.
"We put up with so-called music from losers like Visionary Assassins so that we can hear the janies. I admit I'm confused. I hope one of these days you'll clarify how the whole thing happened. My wife has a chart by the radio so we can keep track of the tidbits you dole out."
So his master plan was working. The delivery of overlapping stories, out of order, had hooked the audience.
I'll do just one more, he thought. I owe it to my audience to let them understand how the kidnapping happened. Then I'll quit.
The professor patted his shoulder. "Now if you'd work as hard at physics as you do at radio . . . ," he said, letting his voice drift off in a friendly fashion.
Reeve was aware of the cold again. It felt wonderful. It cleansed his worries. It seemed enough that he had considered quitting.
CHAPTER
SEVEN.
Jodie had been counting days, hours and minutes till her first college search weekend. She could hardly wait to get into the car, get out on that interstate, and cross those state lines. 0 Freedom!
She drove fast and silently, dreaming of college. The Johnsons lived about two-thirds of the way to Boston. Jodie and Brian arrived around five.
Much to Jodie's disgust, Janie's friend Sarah-Charlotte was there. Jodie considered Sarah-Charlotte the most pretentious name she had ever come across, and Sarah-Charlotte the most pretentious person. Sarah-Charlotte couldn't stand it if you abbreviated her name, so of course Jodie always wanted to call her Char.
Brian sat in the deep-blue living room and talked about libraries with Mrs. Johnson, who worked in the high school library, while Janie, Sarah-Charlotte and Jodie went upstairs to Janie's room.
"You did the room over!" exclaimed Jodie. Last time she had been here, the room had been pastel, romantic and soft. Now it was icily white. It was urban, out of a slick magazine, as if some cold, 'successful woman lived here with two possessions and an empty refrigerator.
You could have been in the mood to decorate a room at our house, Janie, thought Jodie resentfully. You could have let my mom pick out- Jodie calmed herself. She had been mad at her sister long enough. She had not come here to pick a fight, although that had appeal and was one of Jodie's better skills.
Jodie circled the bed which looked clean and starched enough to do .surgeiy on. There on the floor was an array of dolls. "Barbie and Ken?" she said incredulously. "Janie, they sure don't match this room."
"Come on," said Sarah-Charlotte, "Barbie has outfits to match everything."
"I wouldn't know. I never went through a doll stage." Jodie made a decision. "Sarah-Charlotte, I'm going to be incredibly rude and ask if you could visit another time, because I have only tonight to be alone with my sister." Jodie held her breath.
But to her credit, Sarah-Charlotte said she should have realized that, and she'd see Janie in school tomorrow. She ran lightly down the stairs.
In the snowiness of the white room, the sisters looked at each other edgily. They heard Brian call good-bye to Sarah-Charlotte, heard Brian and Janie's parents laugh together.
Janie flushed. "You guys are so nice when you come up here. You're polite to my parents and you joke with my dad and compliment my mother on her color schemes. I never did any of that when I visited you."
"You could start," said Jodie. She had not meant to touch the serious stuff, and here it was- too soon, too much of it. "You could start by calling
our parents Mom and Dad. They've stopped calling you Jennie. They've given you back completely. We don't even refer to Jennie Spring. We call you Janie Johnson. They need a present from you, Janie."
Janie felt ill and nervy. It was all this talk of futures. She didn't like to look out there the way other kids did. Janie looked ahead for a week or a month at most. Anything else was scary. "Jodie, I still have to put the words New Jersey first. New Jersey Mom. New Jersey Dad."
"I'm not demanding," said Jodie. She picked up a Barbie and stared at the doll as if she had never come across such an oddity. "It would just be a nice gift."
A gift, thought Janie. Barbies you wrapped for children' at Christmas were just presents. But her New Jersey parents needed a gift.
Janie felt light again, her thoughts spinning off, leaving her less to work with. "The visits to New Jersey," she said finally, "were easier with Reeve."
"I know. I'm so jealous. There are no Reeves in my entire high school. Or if they're there, they're keeping a low profile."
"Saving themselves for college," agreed Janie. I know so little about her! thought Jodie. It's Sarah-Charlotte who shared her Barbies and sleepovers. I don't want a fight. So here's a safe topic, take it. "Speaking of college," she said, "how does Reeve like it?"
"He loves it. He's not studying. His parents don't know that yet. If he flunks out in his first semester they're going to kill him."
"Reeve dead wouldn't be half so fun," said Jodie.
"Every time he calls, I nag him to study."
"I hear that boys don't like to be nagged."
"Me too, but it's irresistible. You always want to take the boy and mold him into something better."
"Name one thing that could be better about Reeve. I not only don't have a perfect boyfriend, I don't have a boyfriend," said Jodie gloomily. "Yours adores you and calls you up and e-mails you and faxes you and beeps you."
Janie giggled. "He did the first week. And a little bit the second week. But he's got a hobby now and he doesn't think of me as often. My father says it's healthier that way."
Both girls rolled their eyes at the foolishness of fathers.
"He's on a radio show," said Janie.
"No way! Tell me about it."
"College station. Volunteer stuff. He says he's just a gofer but he's learning to be a deejay."
"And he has such a great voice. All deep and sensuous. Does he just introduce the songs or does he get to talk?"
"I think he says things like the temperature outside."
"I bet it sounds wonderful when he says it. Romantic, appealing forty-four degrees. Still, if I were in Boston," said Jodie, "I'm not sure I'd listen to a college station. Aren't there better choices?" Oops! she thought, as Janie stiffened.