"Judith Merril - A Woman of the World" - читать интересную книгу автора (Merril Judith)

A WOMAN OF THE WORLD
by ROSE SHARON
IT TOOK LONGER THAN SHE planned to fill her pockets and lock up the cabinet again. After
that, she had to find some place to leave the key where they could find it, but where the children couldn't
reach it. Then when she got back to the party, Toni was nowhere in sight. Naturally.
AndтАФwouldn't you know it?тАФ Steve was right there, just inside the door. He had his back to her,
talking to somebody else, but the first step she took inside he turned around as if she'd gone right up and
touched him; he heard her or smelled her or something.
She stood there, just inside the doorway, convinced that he had also sensed somehow the weight of
the sagging full pockets that pressed against her hip, on the inside of the carefully arranged coat over her
arm.
"Well, hi there, Princess," he said, and only his voice made a joke of the name. His eyes meant it. "I
was beginning to think you were going to stand us all up tonight."
"I went back to get my wrap . . ." she began.
"Here, I'll put that away for youтАФ" he interrupted.
Then his hand touched the coat over her arm, and both of them stopped short as her muscles jumped
in recoil, shrinking away from the touch.
She saw the hurt cross his face as he pulled his hand back, and she was almost sorry for himтАФthe
damn fool! just like the rest of them here: they wanted and wanted and wished and wailed, and not one
had the guts to go get what he wanted.
But she did.
She made a remote small smile at Steve, and stepped forward a pace to search the room with her
eyes. When she found Tommy, she just stood there waiting till he saw her too. He came across the big
barn floor, weaving between the dancing couples, and she held out her coat to him with an inward sigh of
relief.
Everyone there would have noticed, and they'd all feel sorry for Steve, and nobody would be
surprised at all when she walked out with Tommy Handley later.
But that was all just helpful; the big thing was whit nobody knew, except Tommy. The way the
pockets of her coat were sagging ' with the weight of the rifle shells, she could no more have let Steve
carry it than she could have stood up there and made a public speech about what she was doing.
It was a wonderful partyтАФthe best one she could remember. Partly because it was Tommy's party in
a way, and she was Tommy's girl. But probably more because she knew it was the last one, and her own
excitement was catching. She could feel it coming back at her from every man she danced with.
They stayed just long enough to make it look barely all right, and walked out, her coat on his arm
while everything was still going strong.
As soon as they were out of earshot she whispered fiercely: "You still have it?"
"Sure," he said. "What did you think?"
"I don't know. He might have asked you for it . . ."
"He didтАФwhen I got back to the party. I told him I left it in my other pants."
"No," she said loudly. A shadow had passed the door. "I want to go down to the dock." It was what
any girl would say. If you left the dance with a boy, you could only be going to the woods or to the dock,
where they had a floodlight on party nights. And the way to the dock took them past the small barn.
The little barn was a carpentry shop and machine shop now; this was one of the keys Steve usually
kept after working hours; it was the one Tommy had lied about leaving in his other pants.
Inside, the two of them worked feverishly. The stores of food, smuggled out of the kitchen by Ellen
and into the shop by Tom; the few tools he thought he had to have; two rifles off the wall hooks; their
stored ammunition, plus her last two pocketfuls; the three spare cans of gasolineтАФeverything went into
the car, where two empty packs, and a change of clothes for each of them were already hidden under the
seat.
 By the time anybody who cared enough to watch could be sure they weren't coming out onto the