"Eliot Fintushel - Breakfast with the Ones You Love" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fintushel Eliot)

shimmied under. It was pitch-dark in there. The Yid always said, drop the feline down first, in case
they ever move the elevator carтАФthen youтАЩll know not to jump and kill yourself.
I said, IтАЩll drop you down first, Yid. I figured they would never move that old service elevator. It was
probably rusted in place. The security dicks didnтАЩt even go over to that part of the building
anymore. As far as me and the Yid could tell, it was walled off. Somebody had just dry-walled off
that whole section rather than deal with the shit and rot, probably before whoever sold it to Sears
and Roebuck. That elevator wasnтАЩt going anywhere. I didnтАЩt even use a flashlight. I just jumped. My
legs knew when to bend for the landing. The Yid always used a flashlight. He said, thatтАЩs because
of Auschwitz and Treblinka, where his folks had been, and he didnтАЩt trust anything anymore.
I said, I could take care of Auschwitz and Treblinka, no sweat, I could make those Nazis wish they
had never been born if I half felt like it, and he said, I know, thatтАЩs why I let you stick around, but I
still gotta use the flashlightтАФfor my nerves. I allowed him that.
I held Tule tight. тАЬDonтАЩt claw me this time, pussums, okay?тАЭ I jumped. She clawed, like always,
and I petted her special, like always. тАЬWho loves you?тАЭ You have to reward people after they do
bad; otherwise they just keep on doing bad; is the way I see it, because they stay unhappy. Cats
too.
She relaxed. I felt around for the sliding plate on top of the elevator car. More rust and grit. I found
the edge and pushed it aside. The scraping sound echoed in the elevator shaft. I still couldnтАЩt see
anything but my own mindтАФred and blue points swimming around with that weird antiglow, as if
there were another kind of light, the opposite of daylight, and the darker it gets, the brighter that
gets.
Then I scooped Tule out from under my shirt and my jacket. тАЬHey! ItтАЩs a girl!тАЭ I said, and I tickled
her. The shaft said, itтАЩs a girl, itтАЩs a girl, girl, girl. Tule played at biting my fingers. I held her down
the hole as far as I could without dirtying my jacket too much, and I dropped her into the elevator.
She was okay with that routine. I heard her scratch around down there, smelling for mice. SheтАЩd
find mice now and then. I donтАЩt mind mice. They keep the rats away. Then I lowered myself down
a little and jumped the rest of the way.
It always gave me a kick to feel the car shake when I jumped in. Sometimes IтАЩd imagine the cable
breaking and the whole thing plummeting down to the bottom. Everything would get crushed, even
if you jump and youтАЩre in the airтАФdid you know that? The Yid explained that one to me; itтАЩs
because your jump is falling too, like everything else. So you still wind up with your skull shooting
down through your rib cage or whatever. Not Tule, though. IтАЩd cushion Tule. IтАЩd hug her, even if
she scratched like hell. IтАЩd be her shock absorber, see? She wouldnтАЩt starve, either. She could eat
me till somebody shoveled her out. That would be okay by me. If the Yid was there, and she ate
him too, and he didnтАЩt like it, well, that would be just too bad.
I went straight for the telephone box because the Yid always kept some wet-and-dryтАЩs in there
with some rags that he called schmattes. I picked up the receiver and said, тАЬIтАЩm stuck between
the seventh and eighth floor here. Can you send up a schmatte?тАЭ I grabbed a couple schmattes,
said thank you, and hung up. I wiped off the gritтАФI wiped off the feel of the grit, is what I should
say, because it was still pitch-dark, and I was doing everything by the feel of it, which is my
normal mode anyway. Sight is an extremely overrated sense, in my book.
Tule was watching me. I felt her rub my calf. ThatтАЩs right, wash up, she said. You gotta take care
of yourself, keep yourself clean, keep yourself pretty. You know how to do it. When people see
you, it will make them alive, instead of the other way.
I said, тАЬAw, what do cats know, huh? тАШI love you,тАЩ doesnтАЩt mean I gotta listen to your crap, Tule.тАЭ
But it got me thinking. I closed the phone box and wiped the metal casing with one of the YidтАЩs
schmattes. I knew what I was doingтАФno need to waste batteries yet. I polished it all up; I wanted it
cleaner than what the Yid shaves by. Then I reached down to where I knew a flashlight was and I
shined it up at my face to see if I was still pretty. You never know from one minute to the next. You
think you do, but you donтАЩt. Especially if someone just died in front of you because you twitched a