"Elizabeth Hand - Last Summer on Mars Hill" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hand Elizabeth)

Cancer. Her mother had breast cancer.

"Shit," she said. Her hands after she replaced the papers were shaking. From
outside echoed summer music, and she could hear voices -- her mother's,
Diana's,
Gary Bonetti's deep bass -- shouting above the tinny sound of a cassette
player
--

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could wake up

In the kind of world where we belong? "

You bitch," Moony whispered. She stood at the front window and stared down the
hill at the gazebo, her hands clamped beneath her armpits to keep them still.
Her face was streaked with tears. "When were you going to tell me, when were
you
going to fucking tell met"

At the foot of Mars Hill, alone by a patch of daylilies stood Jason, staring
back up at the cottage. A cigarette burned between his fingers, its scent
miraculously filling the little room. Even from here Moony could tell that
somehow and of course, he already knew.

Everyone had a hangover the next morning, not excluding Moony and Jason. In
spite of that the two met in the community chapel. Jason brought a thermos of
coffee, bright red and yellow dinosaurs stenciled on its sides, and blew ashes
from the bench so she could sit down.

"You shouldn't smoke in here." Moony coughed and slumped beside him. Jason
shrugged and stubbed out his cigarette, fished in his pocket and held out his
open palm.

"Here. Ibuprofen and valerian capsules. And there's bourbon in the coffee."

Moony snorted but took the pills, shooting back a mouthful of tepid coffee and
grimacing.

"Hair of the iguna," Jason said. "So really, Moony, you didn't know?"

"How the hell would I know?" Moony said wearily. "I mean, I knew it was
something --"

She glanced sideways at her friend. His slender legs were crossed at the
ankles
and he was barefoot. Already dozens of mosquito bites pied his arms and legs.
He
was staring at the little altar in the center of the room. He looked paler
than