"Kathleen Ann Goonan - The String (2)" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goose Mother)

The String
by
Kathleen Ann Goonan

Dan tried to ignore the sadness that pervaded him whenever he and Jessica did
something fun together. He smiled at her and her smile told him, "Don't
worry,
Dad, it's all right."
She was much more grown up than him. But that's what a fatal illness often
did
to a child, the doctors had told him.
Cincinatti was always cool in spring, and often overcast. Dan squinted at the
sky as he unrolled the brilliant dragon kite Jessica had picked out and
snared
its breast with a string.
"Come on, Dad," she said, hopping from one foot to another. "What's taking
you
so long?"
"I'm kind of concerned about those trees," he said. Huge oaks surrounded the
ballfield across the street from their house, but it was the clearest place
around. The gusting wind held the sweet tang of rejuvination. How many
springs
would his daughter see? He had to try to knot the string twice; his hand
trembled the first time and he missed poking it through.
Jessica was short for her age, eight, and she wheezed a lot. Dan knew she
would
be dead in a few years but tried not to think about it too much. He wouldn't
live forever either. Anita was bitter about their daughter having cystic
fibrosis, and seemed to want to blame it all on Dan, even though she knew
that
it took recessive genes from both parents.
Jessica lifted the kite, and its fanciful wings filled with wind. "It's
gorgeous," she said. "Purple, red, and yellow."
He smiled at her, and she grinned back, her pale brown hair flying out from
the
hat pulled over her ears, her green eyes full of knowledge no child should
have
to bear, learned as she lay gasping for breath in an endless stream of
anonymous
hospital beds, stuck full of needles which dripped experimental drugs which
never worked into her veins, which were getting harder and harder to find.
"Well, what are you waiting for?" he asked.
He watched the string run through her hands as the wind took the kite. She
played it out until the dragon floated high and small, then began to play
with
it, making it swoop, its long tail swirling like invisible writing on the
gray
sky.
Then she shrieked as a strong gust pulled the end of the string, which Dan
had