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

in the microwave in an old blue-and-white mug with cracked glaze. The mug was
an
icon for her, an icon of love and possibility. Mac, her husband, had given
her
bitter and muddy coffee in that mug the first evening they met. Yes, she
still
missed him, he who had shared so much joy and so much anguish and then-as
happens-betrayed her by dying.
She took the heated milk upstairs to her bedroom and put it on the round
table
beside her bed, a great old brass bed given them as a wedding present by her
parents-in-law. She kept it brightly polished, with the help of an occasional
student. Like the mug, it was continuity, the bed, the old mahogany highboy
that
had belonged to her mother, the chaise longue with its comfortable cushions.
The
room was full of old friends. She lived fully in the present, but her past
was
still part of that present. This evening just over was the first time in
several
years that Taxi and Frankie had been together. And it had been all right.
Nearly
all right.
Above the bed was a large photograph of such fine quality that many people
thought it a painting. It was of Taxi and Frankie in front of Mac's parents'
cottage on the beach in North Florida. The children were sitting together on
a
high dune laced with dark vines of beach morning-glory. Sea oats seemed to be
moving in the wind. Frankie had her hands clasped about her knees. Her hair,
straight and dark, fell to her shoulders. Taxi's hair was also dark, but
softly
curly. The two children were often taken for twins. Taxi had a handful of
sand
and was letting it dribble between his fingers. The pic-
i
Madeleine L'Engle┬╗10
ture was full of light and movement, the best, the artist said, absolutely
the
best picture he had ever taken.
A time long gone. A time of innocence, if innocence had ever been possible in
this sorry century, or in her own lifetime. A time of loveliness caught
fleetingly by the eye of the camera.
'Mommy,' Taxi had asked her, 'why does the camera see upside downs'
'Because our eyes see upside down,' she had answered. Taxi frowned, thinking.
'Daddy?'
When had they had this conversation? Before or after? Taxi was only four when
She shook her head, trying to recall what had been said. 'Sorry, Taxi,' Mac
had
said, 'I'm no scientist.'
Frankie held up her hand, as she usually did when she wanted attention.