"Dart, Iris Rainer - Beaches 01 - Beaches" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dart Iris Rainer)

Bertie bit her lip. She was certainly not any kind of baby. She was only in second grade, but her teacher said her reading was on a fifth-grade level. And that was no baby.
"When I was your age, I was already in the business," said the voice, and out of the darkness stepped a little girl of ten.
Bertie looked at her. Cee Cee was skinny with very curly red hair. She was wearing a plaid cotton one-piece bathing suit with a little skirt attached. And nail polish. Redl On every finger and toe.
"Boy, I was dead to the world under there, kiddo," Cee Cee said. "I was up till two in the morning. We had to put on an extra show."
"I'm lost," said Bertie.
"Relax, kid," Cee Cee said. "You're not lost anymore. / found you! I'm Cee Cee Bloom. Recognize me?"
"Huh?" Bertie answered.
"Maybe out of sequins I look different. I do the 'Mama' number."
"Huh?" Bertie repeated.
"At Jerry Grey's. You been there?"
Bertie shook her head.
"Never been there? Jeez, whaddya been doin', for chrissake? Every kid on vacation in Atlantic City comes to Jerry Grey's Kiddie Show down at the Steel Pier. It's the greatest."
Bertie felt bad. She considered crying again.
"I do the 'Mama' number."
You've got to see mama ev'ry night, Or you can't see mama at all,
Cee Cee sang.
Bertie listened. That voice. It sounded like a real person's voice. Not a kid's, but a lady's.
You've got to kiss mama, treat her right, Or she won't be home when you call.
Cee Cee was starting to get into the song. Her little lips did funny things when she sang. Even when her voice had finished a word in the song, her lips kept moving. Her hands with the polished nails did what Bertie's mom called "the motions." Bertie's mom used to sing sometimes in front of the mirror, and she once told Bertie, "You can't sing a song without the motions."
"You want my company, You can't fifty-fifty me....
Bertie blushed. One of the motions Cee Cee did was to put her hands right on her own bust, or rather, where her bust would have been if she had one. If there was one thing Bertie knew for sure, it was that you didn't ever touch your bust in public, whether you had one or not.
You've got to see mama every night, Or you can't see mama at all.
"Then I do a real hot tap," Cee Cee said. "But I can't do it here. I haven't got the right shoes. And then I come back to the last two lines and I really sell it. It's a show-stopper. Ya know what I mean?"
"I'm lost," said Bertie. The words had little meaning now, but she didn't know what else to say.
"Fa chrissake. Is that all you can say?"
"Will you help me find my mom and Aunt Neetie?" Bertie asked.
"How old are you, kid?"
"Seven."
"Seven? Jeez. I'm ten. Practically old enough to nurse you."
"My mom was sitting on the beach and I . . ."
"You sure are serious about finding your mom," Cee Cee said. "I spend half my time trying to lose mine."
"Oh, you do, huh, you little shtoonk. I'll beat you black and blue when I get my hands on you," came a voice from up on the boardwalk. The two girls looked up.
"Aww, crap," muttered Cee Cee.
Rumbling down the steps came the fattest woman Bertie had ever seen. She wore a giant yellow beach hat and a dress that showed legs that looked as though she had borrowed them from a hippo. Each of the old wooden steps from the boardwalk sank as her weight fell on them. Bertie couldn't understand why the woman looked familiar until she took a side glance at Cee Cee, and then realized that if someone took one of those air pumps that they used
to blow up Mickey Mouse for the Macy's parade and blew up Cee Cee, she would look exactly like this woman.
"Oh, Leona, take it easy," Cee Cee said as the woman fell on her in tears.
"I woke up and you was gone, ya little brat. What was I gonna think, fa chrissake?" Leona sobbed. "And then Mistah Grey called. He said he's got somethin' big ta tell us. I sweah to God, Gee, I almost called the cops."
"Leona, you're a real jerk!" Cee Cee said.
Bertie thought it was amazing that Leona hadn't even noticed that her daughter had said something terrible to her. She just wiped her eyes.
"Is this kid in the show?" Leona asked, pointing to Bertie.
"Nah."
"Well, let's go. Over to the pier. Come on," Leona said, reaching for Cee Cee's arm. Cee Cee took a deliberate step away so Leona couldn't touch her.
"I'm comin'! I'm comin'!" she said.
Leona turned and started back toward the steps to the boardwalk. Cee Cee walked a few feet behind her, slowly, looking down, watching the impressions her red-polished toes made in the sand. Cee Cee was on the bottom step when Bertie spoke in a tiny voice.
"I'm lost."
There were lots of noisy people on the beach, and the roar of the surf was very loud, but still Cee Cee heard Bertie's voice and turned back.
"What's your name?" Cee Cee asked her.
"Bertie."
"Ya mean like the kind that sing in the trees?"
"Nope. Short for Roberta."