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

"I should call your mothers," Maddy's mom had fretted, even as she
banished them from the party, from the pool. "You shouldn't cross
Edmondson Avenue alone."

"I'm allowed" Ronnie said. "I have an aunt on Stamford, I go to her
house when my parents are working. She's this side of Edmondson."

Then, with a defiant look around at the other girls, their faces still
stricken and shocked, Ronnie added: "My aunt has Doublestuf Oreos and
Rice Krispie treats and all the cable channels, and I can watch
anything I want, even if it's higher than PG-13."

Ronnie did have an aunt somewhere nearby, Alice knew, although Stamford
didn't sound right. Neither did the Oreos and Rice Krispies there was
never anything that good to eat in the Fuller house. There was all the
soda you could drink, because Mr. Fuller drove a truck for Coca-Cola.
And Ronnie was telling the truth about what she watched. The Fullers
didn't seem to care what Ronnie saw. Or did, or said. The only thing
that seemed to bother Mr. Fuller was the noise from the television,
because the only thing he ever said to Ronnie and her three older
brothers was Turn it down, turn it down. Or, for good measure: Turn it
down, for Christ's sake. Just last week, on a rainy afternoon, Ronnie
had been watching one of those movies in which teenagers kept getting
killed in ever more interesting ways, their screams echoing forever.
Alice had buried her head beneath the sofa cushions, indifferent to the
stale smells, the crumbs and litter pressing into her cheek. For once,
she was almost glad when Mr. Fuller came through the door at the end
of his shift. "Jesus, Ronnie," he had said on a grunt. "Turn it down.
I swear there's just no living with you."

"You're blocking the set, Dad" was Ronnie's only reply. But she must
have found the remote, for the screams faded away a few seconds later,
and Alice popped her head out again.

Maddy's mother didn't believe the story about Ronnie's aunt. Alice
could see the skepticism in her parted lips, painted a glossy pink, and
in her squinty, tired eyes. Maddy's mother seemed torn between wanting
to challenge Ronnie's lie, and wanting to get away from Ronnie away
from them, although Alice had done nothing, nothing at all, except get
a ride to the party from Ronnie's brother.

Maddy's mother licked her lips once, twice, removing some of the pink
and most of the gloss, and finally said: "Very well." Later she told
everyone Ronnie had lied to her, that she never would have let two
little girls leave if she had known they were going to be unsupervised,
if she had known they were going to cross Edmondson Avenue alone. That
was the worst thing anyone in Southwest Baltimore could imagine at 2
p.m." on July 17, seven years ago crossing Edmondson Avenue alone.