"Madeline L' Engle - A Live Coal in the Sea" - читать интересную книгу автора (L'Engle Madeleine)

being known as Taxi. Is that his real name?"
"Artaxias," she would explain, not amused at their laugh
ter.
"Weirdo." "Cute." "Some Greek god or something?"
Raffi would tell them, "Artaxias was one of the generals of Antiochus the
Great.
He revolted and became an independent sovereign."
More delighted laughter. "Sovereign! That's Taxi!"
"And you, Raffi? Are you named after an archangel? Rafael?"
Raffi would smile. "I'm named Rose Rafferty after my dad's grandparents."
"Cute!"
"What a super family, Raf." "And your mother's a dancer?"
She lifted her shoulders slightly. "Till after I was born. A dancer's life is
pretty short" -but not that short. Mom could have gone on dancing. Dad wanted
her to quit.
A Live Coal in the Sea,25
She turned back to her friends, found herself overexplaining, "The New York
ballet season's pretty short, and my dad didn't want her away on those long
tours."
"If I was married to Taxi I wouldn't mind staying home." What Raffi thought
about her father was not coherent. She loved him passionately, and she was
afraid of him. She was never sure what his reactions would be, and when he
spoke
to her with scorn, something inside her withered.
-I'm like a dog, she thought, -never knowing whether my master is going to
stroke me or kick me. How does Mom manage to be so calm, so casual about it
all?
Raffi's mother was Taxi's third wife. He had married at eighteen, divorced at
nineteen, married again, quickly divorced. Somehow Raffi's mother hung in,
disregarding his vol atile temper. "I'm like a duck," she told Raffi. "I let
it
slide off me. It's just Taxi's way. It doesn't mean anything."
Didn't it? Raffi didn't like unpredictability, didn't like irrational anger
directed at her mother, or herself.
She climbed the stairs, calling out greetings as she passed her friends. If
Taxi
could act, so could Raffi, always making everybody think everything was all
right. Nothing ever bothers Raffi. Raffi's always okay.
Yay.
She could act in real life; she could act in all the school plays, and loved
doing it, until, as always happened, her father managed to put her down. Why?
She would put her tail be tween her legs, as it were, and swear she'd never
try
out for a play again, but when the time came she was always there, happy and
excited, tail wagging hopefully.
She went into her room and shut the door. What had she expected her
grandmother
to tell her? Not a long-winded story about how she had met Raffi's
grandfather.
What did that have to do with it?