"Suzette Haden Elgin - Peacetalk 101" - читать интересную книгу автора (Elgin Suzette Haden)

putting each other down; everybodynagging and griping and sneering, whining and
carping and bellyaching.Everybody out to win the award for Wickedest Mouth In
The East,and Meanest Mouth In The West, and Foulest Mouth Overall. Andthey
were proud of it!
It baffled him, the way they behaved. Everybodywading around up to their noses in
what looked and sounded andsmelled to Henry like a cesspool of talk, and so
pleased withtheir own performance that they couldn't stop bragging. It was"Boy, I
really got her going, didn't I?"and 'Hey, did you see the way I made him squirm?
How about that! Am I a great communicator or what ?" and"It'll be a cold day in hell
before they take me onagain!" On top of everything else he had to put up with,it was
too much. Way too much.
The day finally came when Henry had had allhe could stand. He wanted out. He
decided that he would do twomore weeks of this hard row of his, so there'd be one
more paycheckand he could leave with his bills mostly paid, and then he wasgoing to
hoe no more; he was going to get out of this mess forgood. He had no rich relatives
to wait around for, and he knewthe Publishers Clearing House guys weren't going to
be stoppingby his place. Death was the only door that was open to him; hewas going
to go through it.
And because they were his responsibility, andthere was no one he could count on to
look after them, he wouldbe taking the wife and the child with him. He hadn't yet
decidedexactly how he was going to work it all out, because thinkingabout it made
him sick at his stomach. But his mind was made up:Twomore weeks, and then ...
lights out .
Henry was ordinary, but he wasn't stupid. Hedid realize that a man with only two
weeks left of his life oughtto do or say at least a few significant things in the time
thatremained to him. He even sat himself down and deliberately triedto think of
something significant to do. But nothing came to him.His mind, which had been so
little use so far in his life, wasno use this time either; it stayed as blank and empty as
waterin a ditch on a gray day. And so he just went on about his businessthe way he
always had, to make the time go by.




CHAPTER ONE


On this particular sticky summer day, Henryhad tried and failed to get his car started,
and he'd had to takethe bus to work. He was hot and cross and weary by the time
heheaded home, and he sat down in the last empty window seat andstared out
through the dirty glass. He had the idea that at leastfor this twenty-five minute bus
ride he wouldn't have to hearany poisonous talk that was aimed straight at him.
There'd bethe usual abundance of the stuff all around him, sure; but itwouldn't have
anything to do with him. Because he was lookingforward to the break, his heart sank
when at the very last instant,just as the bus was pulling away from the curb, a
homeless personscrambled on board and sat down beside him.
The bus had filled up completely; there wasnowhere for Henry to move to. He
gritted his teeth and kept hishead turned hard to the window, and closed his eyes.
Maybe theperson would have the decency to leave him alone?
It didn't turn out that way; Henry wasn't surprised.The homeless man spoke right up.