"Emily Gaskin - The Green Corn Dance" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gaskin Emily)

"'Why?' said Little Green Frog. 'There is nothing I have to do.' But the irritating
old rabbit kept pestering him until the little frog got so angry that he said, 'I'll fix
you!'


"Then Little Green Frog started singing his funny-noise song he makes to call the
rain. Soon the wind began to blow, and the black clouds came. The rains came
down and soaked the pesky rabbit so much he got cold and ran all the way
home and left Little Green Frog alone.


"So, my sweet lover, let me sleep, or I will make the rain come down and wash
you clean away."
Steve backs away and sits himself on the edge of the bed. I think maybe my
story has had the right effect, but he starts to speak again.


"I have an appointment this afternoon. A man my mother wants me to see." He
laughs halfheartedly. "I must have said too much at the family reunion, or at
least the margaritas said too much. Anyway, the whole family's talking about
how poor Stevie's gone crackers."


I sit upright. I draw behind Steve and put my arms around his shoulders. "Ghosts
walk with you," I say. "They do not understand."


"Hell, I don't understand." He shrugs my arms off, shedding them like a snake
skin. "Maybe the shrink can explain it."


He turns to me. His eyes, the color of shallow water, fix on me. "Why is this
happening to me?"


Steve joined my life when I left Big Cypress for Tampa. I was going to the
university in the city and took a job at the Tampa reservation's bingo hall. They
were hiring part-time in the smoke shop also, and I confess, I could have used
the money, but I already had my fill in Big Cypress, selling to the whites who
would drive hours to the reservation for tax-free cigarettes. To some of us, this
is amusing. They come down, coughing in their white clouds, fighting for each
breath, still asking for more. We will smoke them all dead, my brother used to
say. But I could say nothing, also coughing in the smoke shop smoke.


In Tampa I wanted something happier, something that did not make my lungs
itch, and so I took the job at the bingo hall, doubling as the girl who hands out
the boards and the girl who shows off the Porsche jackpot. Now I was just