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

that Alice wasn't going with them. Alice thought St. William of York
was a real private school. It was real enough that Alice's mother
couldn't afford it anymore. Next year, Alice would have to go to West
Baltimore Middle. Ronnie would, too. Alice's mother said it wasn't
about the money, that Alice needed to meet All Kinds of People, to be
exposed to New Experiences, and, besides, if she stayed in Catholic
school much longer, she Might Become a Catholic, God Forbid.

But Alice knew: It was about the money. In the end, everything was
about money in her house, in the Fuller house, even in the rich kids'
houses. Parents just had different vocabulary words for it some fancy,
some plain and different ways of talking about it. Or not talking
about it, as the case may be.

In the Fuller family, they screamed and yelled about money, even stole
from each other. Earlier this summer, Ronnie had caught her youngest
older brother going into her bank and tried to bite him. He had just
pushed her down, then taken a hammer and smashed the bank, a Belle from
Beauty and the Beast, even though she had a little plug beneath her
feet. He didn't have to break her to get what was inside. And even
when the money was freed mostly pennies and nickels but also quarters,
a few of those dollar coins, from when they put the woman on the coin
and nobody wanted her Matthew had kept pounding and pounding on Belle
until she was nothing but yellow powder.

Alice and her mother did not fight about money, did not even speak
about it directly, not even when her grandparents visited from
Connecticut and said things like: "Well, this is the life you made for
yourself." Once, Alice's grandfather, Da, had given her a five-dollar
bill when she told him she didn't have the kind of scrunchie that all
the other girls had. It was the only time her mother had ever spanked
Alice, and they both cried afterward and agreed it would never happen
again. Her mother would not spank, and Alice would not make up stories
to get money from Da.

That had been back in the third grade, though, when neon scrunchies
were important and Alice hadn't yet learned to be good. Now the thing
to have was jellies, which is why Alice saved her allowance and bought
her own, at Target. She had shown them to her school-year-best-friend
Wendy, when it was time to open the presents, and Wendy must have
approved, for she made room for Alice on the bench she was sharing with
two other girls from their class.

Maddy's birthday party had been set up near the baby pool, not because
they were babies, but because it was behind a fence, and they needed
the fence to tie the balloons. Alice found herself counting the gifts.
She was always counting. Steps on the stair, lines on the highway,
birds flying south for the winter. There were fourteen presents on the
table, but only thirteen girls at the party. Did Maddy's mom bring a
present, too? Or did one of the girls away at camp send a gift?