"Zenna Henderson - People 1 - Pilgrimage" - читать интересную книгу автора (Henderson Zenna)

"'She's rather young," he said, reaching for a toothpick and tipping his chair back on its hind legs.
Mother gave Jethro another helping of pie and picked up her own fork again. "Youth is no crime," she
said, "and it'll be a pleasant change for the children."
"Yes, though it seems a shame." Father prodded at a back tooth and Mother frowned at him. I wasn't
sure if it was for picking his teeth or for what he said. I knew he meant it seemed a shame to get a place
like Cougar Canyon so early in a career. It isn't that we're mean or cruel, you understand. It's only that
they're Outsiders and we sometimes forget-especially the kids.
"She doesn't have to come," Mother said. "She could say no."
 "Well, now-" Father tipped his chair forward. "Jethro, no more pie. You go on out and help Kiah bring
in the wood. Karen, you and Lizbeth get started on the dishes. Hop to it, kids."
And we hopped, too. Kids do to fathers in the Canyon, though I understand they don't always Outside.
It annoyed me because I knew Father wanted us out of the way so he could talk adult talk to Mother, so
I told Lizbeth I'd clear the table and then worked as slowly as I could, and as quietly, listening hard.
"She couldn't get any other job," Father said. "The agency told me they had placed her twice in the last
two years and she didn't finish the year either place."
"Well," Mother said, pinching in her mouth and frowning.
"If she's that bad why on earth did you hire her for the Canyon?"
"We have a choice?" Father laughed. Then he sobered. "No, it wasn't for incompetency. She was a
good teacher. The way she tells it they just fired her out of a clear sky. She asked for recommendations
and one place wrote, 'Miss Carmody is a very competent teacher but we dare not recommend her for a
teaching position.' "
" 'Dare not'?" Mother asked.
" 'Dare not,' " Father said; "The agency assured me that they had investigated thoroughly and couldn't
find any valid reasons for the dismissals, but she can't seem to find another job anywhere on the coast.
She wrote me that she wanted to try another state."
"Do you suppose she's disfigured or deformed?" Mother suggested.
"Not from the neck up!" Father laughed. He took an envelope from his pocket. "Here's her application
picture."
By this time I'd got the table cleared and I leaned over Father's shoulder.
"Gee!" I said. Father looked back at me, raising one eyebrow. I knew then that he had known all along
that I was listening.
I flushed but stood my ground, knowing I was being granted admission to adult affairs, if only by the
back door.
The girl in the picture was lovely. She couldn't have been many years older than I and she was twice
as pretty.
She had short dark hair curled all over her head and apparently that poreless creamy skin which seems to
have an inner light of its own. She had a tentative look about her as though her dark eyebrows were
horizontal question marks. There was a droop to the corners of her mouth-not much, just enough to
make you wonder why, and want to comfort her.
"She'll stir the Canyon for sure," Father said.
"I don't know" Mother frowned thoughtfully. "What will the Old Ones say to a marriageable
Outsider in the Canyon?"
"Adonday Veeah!" Father muttered. "That never occurred to me. None of our other teachers was ever
of an age to worry about."
"'What would happen?" I asked. "I mean if one of the Group married an Outsider?"
"Impossible," Father said, so like the Old Ones that I could see why his name was approved in Meeting
last spring.
"Why, there's even our Jemmy," Mother worried. "Already he's saying he'll have to start trying to find
another Group. None of the girls here pleases him. Supposing this Outsider-how old is she?"
Father unfolded the application. "Twenty-three. Just three years out of college."