"Duncan,.Lois.-.Summer.Of.Fear" - читать интересную книгу автора (Duncan Lois)

"You think she is?" I asked in surprise.
"She's more than pretty," Peter said softly. "She's beautiful."


Five

What happened that night out there in the moonlight between Peter and Julia, I was never to know. Peter did not tell me, and when I reached my room upstairs I found the lights out. In the thin stream of moonlight from the open window I could see a dark form stretched out on my bed.
"Julia?" I said softly.
There was no answer.
It seemed impossible that she could have gone to bed and fallen asleep so quickly. Still, I thought, she had certainly had a long and emotionally exhausting day. I was tempted to turn on the light in order to look at her again. Peter had called her "beautiful"ЧPeter, who had never called a girl beautiful beforeЧand I wanted to see why.
But people just don't turn on lights in rooms where someone else is sleeping, or pretending to sleep, and so I undressed in the dark, groping through two different bureau drawers for my pajamas because I couldn't remember how I had arranged things, and crawled into the other twin bed.
I'll look at her in the morning, I told myself.
The thought must have stayed with me through the night, because the moment I wakened I turned over to stare at the girl in the opposite bed, and I saw at once that something had changed.
Julia was already awake, lying on her back with her hands under her head, gazing at the ceiling. Her thick, black hair was spread out across the pillow like a frame for the thin, high boned face. The thing that was different was the expression. No longer did she have the nervous, half frightened look of the day before. Her face was relaxed and her lips were curved in a slight smile.
"Rachel," she said without turning her head, "will you go with me today to buy some clothes?"
I jumped at the sound of her voice. "How did you know I was awake?" I asked her.
"I felt your eyes open." She turned then, stretching lazily like a cat and lifting herself up on one elbow so that she faced me. Her eyes seemed lighter than the day before, softer, less penetrating. "Will you?"
"Sure," I said. I had no plans for the day. "What sort of clothes do you want to shop for?"
"Jeans like yours. With the wide bottoms. What do you call them?"
"Flares?"
"Yes, flares. And some shirts like the one you had on yesterday when we got here. AndЧoh, a lot of things. I need almost everything."
"How come?" I asked. "Did you wear uniforms at your school?"
Julia hesitated and then nodded. "Yes, that's right. I didn't even bother to bring them with me. I want to dress the way you do, to wear the kinds of things that you wear here."
"Okay," I said. "Well get you fixed up so you'll look like a member of the gaggle."
"Of what?"
"The gaggleЧthat's what Mike calls my friend Carolyn and me when we get together. It's sort of a joke because he says we chatter so much."
"Oh." She didn't laugh, but the little half smile remained on her lips. "Mike seems nice."
"He is," I said. "He kids around a lot, but he's a great guy."
"He's very good looking."
"I think so too." I thought, this is the time to ask her about last night and Peter, but I couldn't seem to make myself do it. So instead I said, "We'd better get up. I smell bacon cooking," and got out of bed.
The work day at the Laboratories was pushed ahead an hour in the summertime, so Dad had already left for work by the time we reached the kitchen. Mother was sitting at the table, drinking her coffee and reading "Dear Abby," and Pete and Bobby were both stuffing down eggs and bacon.
"Morning," I said, and Mother looked up from the paper and smiled and said, "Good morning, girls. Did you sleep well?" and Peter flushed pink under his freckles and said, "Hi, there," not looking at me but at Julia.
"We're going shopping today," I said. "Julia wants to get some summer clothes."
"That's a good idea," Mother said. "In fact, I was going to suggest it myself. The things girls wear at boarding school are sure to be different from what they wear around a place like Albuquerque. I'd go with you, except that I have to print up those snow scenes and get them into the mail."
"I think I'll call Carolyn," I said. "She loves to go shopping, and it will be a chance for Julia to meet her. Maybe Mrs. Baker will run us over to Winrock."
"I'll drive you over," Peter offered. "I can get to work a couple of minutes late without hurting anything."
It was so out of character for Peter that both Mother and I turned to him with our mouths hanging open, and Bobby nearly dropped his toast.
"Boy!" he exclaimed. "Now I've heard everything! Pete Bryant offering to take a bunch of girls shopping and nobody even asked him!"
"Cut it out," Pete said, looking embarrassed. "The shopping center's right on my way to work."
"I'll give you the credit cards," Mother said. "For heaven's sake, don't lose them."
So I called Carolyn, who wanted to come, of course, as she was dying to get a look at Julia, We stopped at her house to pick her up, and then Peter drove us to Winrock and dropped us off there, and Carolyn and I took Julia through the stores. I had a few qualms at first about how Carolyn and Julia would get along together. Julia was so different from all of our school friends that I still felt sort of awkward with her myself. But I needn't have worried. She seemed to take to Carolyn immediately and though she didn't talk much she smiled a lot, and she listened to all of Carolyn's and my suggestions as we swept her along from store to store.
"What about House of Fabrics?" I suggested after we had bought jeans and two pullover shirts and an India print blouse. "Mother says there's a sale there. I want to make a dress to wear to the teen night dance on the fifteenth."
"That's a great idea," Carolyn said enthusiastically. "Rick's seen everything I own at least a hundred times. I'd like to surprise him for once and show up in something different,"
So we went to House of Fabrics and picked out patterns and material. Carolyn got a pale blue with a white design going through it and I went wild and got pink. "At least, I can be sure no other redhead will be wearing it," I said, laughing. "Julia, what are you choosing?"
"I don't sew," Julia said. "Besides, I don't need a dress. I have my yellow."
"Yes," I said, "but stillЧ" I struggled to think of a way to say politely that although the dress was lovely, it was not a dress that was becoming to Julia. It belonged on someone else, someone with lighter hair and complexionЧsomeoneЧbut who? The question of the night before leapt back into my mind, tugging at the edges of my memory in irritating little jerks. Where in the world was it that I had seen a dress like Julia's, and who was it who was wearing it?
"Do you have a swimming suit, Julia?" Carolyn asked, unaware of my mental conflict. "If not, you'll really need one. We all spend a lot of time at the pool out at the club."
So we went back to Penney's where we had purchased the shirts and took a look at the bikinis.
Julia picked out a couple and went into the dressing room to try them on.
"What do you think of my cousin?" I asked Carolyn as we waited.