"Kathleen Ann Goonan - Angels and You Dogs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goose Mother)

He's a wonderful soul. He couldn't hurt a fly. He is so compassionate and
caring and interesting that I have personally been frustrated that he
insists on being so very gay." Now it was her turn to shrug. "But these
things are hard to change."
"Impossible," I said. "I tried, you know. I almost got married once."
"Really." Intense interest filled her eyes. And sudden tears which
glimmered but did not fall. "What happened?"
"We came to our senses. I realized that I was just trying to make my
parents happy, and she was sure that she could change me. I was only
nineteen."
"Oh. I can understand that. I got married when I was seventeen. It
made me extremely happy, didn't it, Ambrose?"
An enthusiastic bark, which I interpreted as, another piece of snapper,
please. Lulu's face lit up as if she were Cinderella and the prince had
arrived with her favorite, elusive sling-backs from the forties.
"What happened?"
I could tell that she was measuring me for trust and that I failed.
"I am just telling you that Stuart would be perfect for you. He loves
orchids, Fiestaware, Jadite, and he is a stockbroker and makes good
money. He plays the piano, and he is insufferably well-organized."
"How can I resist?" I was getting a little weary of her insistence. I prefer
romance to blossom. At least, that's what I told myself, though if I had
examined my feelings I might have seen that the seed had been planted,
and it turned out to be a very good seed indeed. But these things happen
in their own time. The idea of embarking on a new relationship held only
the promise of repeated pain and too much work. "Just because I'm gay
doesn't mean I have to jump into an affair with the first gay man I see."
"You are only making yourself miserable right now."
"I don't see you engaging in any kind of meaningful long-term
relationship, except with your dog," I retorted.
She pushed her chair back, got up, and picked up Ambrose, who tilted
back his head and licked her throat. "You have no idea," she said, with the
most extraordinary range of emotion in her voice and on her face: sorrow,
regret, and deep calm. Without even giving me a chance to respond, she
walked into the house, picked up her bag, and left through the front door.
I heard her car start, and the sound of it faded down the street.
Evening had turned to night.
 .....



The weather warmed. I took my orchids outside, and some of them
actually bloomed, which, for some reason, irritated me. Charles and I had
waited for over a year for the Ascda Suksomran Sunlight "Gold," a hybrid
from Maui, to make up its mind to face the world as something more than
a dry stick. Lulu told me to sell them all and get new ones. "Have a yard
sale. A clean sweep is best, Evan."
Lulu and I had long since settled into a routine. Despite her surface
disarray, I discovered from her mother, when she called once and Lulu was
out, that Lulu was always on the Dean's List. Her mother asked about