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

"No!" Cee Cee screamed. "No!" and she jumped to her feet and she ran, into the orchestra pit, fists in the air. When she got to the piano, she slopped and began punching the piano wildly, banging out an eerie, violent tune on the keys. She grabbed her head in her hands for a moment and then pushed her way through the orchestra pit, knocking over folding chairs and music stands as she went, still screaming.
"My life. Oh, God. Oh, no."
She jumped up on the stage, still screaming, took one last, long breath and then collapsed in a heap on the stage, where she sat sobbing quietly.
Bertie and Leona walked to the stage. "Gee?" Leona said.
Cee Cee looked up at her mother, her eyes burning, her entire face swollen. "How," she asked. "How did she know, Leona? How did Lewandowski find out?" Then, screaming, "How, fa chrissake?"
Bertie looked at Leona. Leona had gone very pale.
"Look . . . um . . . kids. How 'bout a bite? I'll treat yiz both, you and the kid, to a big meal somewheres."
"Leona," shouted Cee Cee, standing up. "How did she know? How?"
Leona looked helplessly at Bertie as though Bertie would have some magic answer. When Bertie's look was equally helpless, Leona turned back to Cee Cee and replied timidly, "Well, um ... I did happen to run into her when I was gettin' the sandwiches and-"
"Leona," Cee Cee said quietly. "You told her. It was you. You saw Lewandowski and told her. You were braggin' to her, weren't you?"
"Well, I mentioned-"
"Leona," Cee Cee screamed. "Leona!" And with that, the small girl thrust her entire body at her mother, the way football players thrust themselves at the practice bag,
and then pulled away and thrust herself at her mother again and again. With each thrust of her body, she cried out like an animal.
Leona stood there as though the child was making a gesture of love. Tirelessly, Cee Cee fell on Leona until at last she slid to the floor at her mother's feet. Leona stooped down on her haunches next to the girl and caressed her baby's hair, and the mother and daughter sobbed together for a long time.
Bertie turned quietly and walked into the wings to the brown wooden door marked EXIT and left. Standing on the boardwalk, all the directions seemed clear to her for the first time and, unafraid, she walked on the boardwalk toward the place where she knew her mother and Aunt Neetie would be, and down the steps to the beach.
Neetie was asleep, and Bertie's mom was under an umbrella reading Reader's Digest and smoking a cigarette. When Bertie stood next to the umbrella, her mom looked
UP-
"Oh, Bert. Hi, honey," she said. "Beady to go up? It's getting late, angel. I'll bet you're hungry."
"Yeah," Bertie said.
"Neetie," Bertie's mom said, poking Aunt Neetie. "Wake up. It's almost five o'clock, and your back looks like a lobster."
Bertie's mom put out her cigarette and began gathering the towels, magazines and suntan lotion.
"Have a nice day, Puss?" she asked.
"Mmmm-hmmm."
"Where's your bucket and shovel?"
"Don't know."
"Lost? Well, we'll get another one tomorrow."
Aunt Neetie, Bertie's mom, and Bertie each carried some of the beach stuff and headed for their hotel room. They had just enough time to take a shower and dress and stop for an early dinner before the dinner crowd got there.
Bertie decided that the new bucket and shovel set was better than the old one. To begin with, the shovel said "Atlantic City" on the handle, so when she took it back to Pittsburgh, she could show the other kids where she got it, and the new bucket was deeper than the old one, so when she filled it with wet sand and then turned it over, the bucket-shaped piles it made were very impressive.
"Hiya, kid," said a voice.
Bertie looked up. It was Cee Cee Bloom. She was wearing white pedal pushers and a pink printed shirt. Her eyes were a little puffy, but her smile was big and warm.
"Been lookin' all over for ya. Me and Leona are goin' home today. I miss my dad ... so I quit the show. Leona says after we get home, maybe I could go to summer camp for a few weeks. You know, like the real kids. So here's my address in the Bronx," she said, handing Bertie a little white piece of paper. "Maybe we'll be pen pals or somethin'."
"Thanks, Gee," Bertie said, then hoped the familiarity was okay.
"Thank you, kid," Cee Cee said as she turned to walk up the beach. Bertie watched her go.
When she reached the steps, before she walked up to the boardwalk, Cee Cee turned back to where she knew Bertie was watching, and she smiled and blew Bertie a kiss. Bertie recognized the gesture. It was the kind of kiss Cee Cee blew to the audience when the show was over and she was taking her bows. Bertie held the little white piece of paper tightly in her hand.
DEAR CEE CEE,
I KNOW THAT YOU CANNOT COME TO MY PAR7T BUT 1 THOUGHT YOU WOULD LIKE TO SEE MY INVITATIONS ANYWAY.
RAGGEDY ANN AND RAGGEDY ANDY ARE JOINING US FOR CAKE AND CANDY. HOPE THAT YOU WILL COME TO SAY HAPPY TIMES ON MY BIRTHDAY.
BERTIE WHITE
REMEMBER ME FROM
A.C.?
DEAR BERTIE,
IN SCHOOL WE ARE WRITING LETTERS TO PEN PALS. SO WILL YOU BE MINE, OKAY? THE BEST NEWS IS THAT MY MOM'S GOING TO GET ME A BRA. IT HAS ELASTIC SO IT COULD FIT AND I WON'T NEED AN UNDERSHIRT ANYMORE. RSVP
LOVE.
CECILIA BLOOM.
DEAR CEE CEE.
MY MOM SAID I SHOULD SEND YOU A COPY OF THIS DUMB PICTURE. EVEN THOUGH 1 HATE IT. YESTERDAY WHEN WE GOT THEM SHARON WHITMAN WHO SITS NEXT TO ME AND GOT MINE BY MISTAKE SAID I AM SO SKINNY I LOOK LIKE OLIVE OYL WHICH IS THE SKINNY GIRL IN POPEYE AND I CRIED.
MY MOM SAYS SHARON WHITMAN IS ONLY JEALOUS AND SHE SAID THAT POPEYE AND THE MEAN GUY WHO HAS THE BEARD BOTH LOVE OLIVE OYL SO SHE MUST BE PRETTY GOOD EVEN IF SHE'S SKINNY.
MOM HAS PUT THIS PICTURE INTO A FRAME AND EVERY TIME I COME HOME FROM SCHOOL I TURN THE FRAME TO THE WALL AND SHE GETS MAD. HA HA.
DO YOU HAVE ANY PICTURES?
BERTIE W. XX OO P.S. SEND ME ONE.