"Lippman, Laura - Every Secret Thing" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lippman Laura)

When Maddy's mother spoke, it was in that quiet, scary tone that adults
use so effectively: "I think we should call someone to take you
home."

"I said I was sorry. I didn't mean to fight. It was an accident. You
touched me first."

"You must be tired from all the sun and excitement. Is there someone
at your house I can call to come get you?" Cell phone out, at the
ready.

"I came with Alice," Ronnie said, grabbing her arm. "We have to go
home together."

Alice was caught off guard, unprepared to wiggle out of this. Yes,
technically she was supposed to go home with Ronnie, but not if Ronnie
misbehaved. Why should she have to leave just because Ronnie was bad?
She hesitated, and that was when Ronnie told her story, about the aunt
and the Oreos and everything else.

"Very well," Maddy's mother said. "Actually, I feel better about two
of you walking. Now, you are going to your aunt's house, right? On
this side of Edmondson? Good."

It wasn't good and it wasn't well and it wasn't fair. Alice peeled
herself away from the bench, grabbed her towel and her shoes. Wendy's
sympathetic glance only made it worse. Ronnie walked into the pool and
grabbed the doll, dropping it twice on the way back. Water had seeped
through the cardboard. The doll's dress clung to her hard little body,
drops of moisture beaded on her brown limbs. Alice wished she could
dip her feet in the wading pool, rinsing them, because she knew what
Ronnie said was only half true. The little kids did pee in it, but
that wouldn't take your toenails off. In fact, Alice's mom said pee
was good for athlete's foot and jellyfish stings.

And so they went, leaving those two sets of wet footprints, one
slightly ahead of the other, together yet apart, linked by the sheer
unfairness of things, the usual daily accidents. Up the stairs, across
the vast black parking lot, up the long hill to Edmondson, where Ronnie
beat on the silver button for the Walk sign, even though everyone knew
it would change in its own good time and the button was just for
show.

"I thought we were going to your aunt's house," Alice dared to say, and
Ronnie simply stared, her lie forgotten.

"My aunt works," she said. "In the summer she works at the crab house
on Route 40. Besides, she doesn't like me to come around right now.
She and my dad are in a fight about something."