"Thomas F. Monteleone - Tales of Terror and Madness" - читать интересную книгу автора (Monteleone Thomas F)

stop him, no sir. If he wants it, he takes it, and who cares if she's
doubled over with cramps and bleeding for two days after. She ain't a
wife to him, she's just a possession, so to him it ain't rape. Them kids
don't hardly exist for him at home-oh, if there's an office party or
picnic or something like that, he's Robert Young on Father Knows Best,
but the rest of the time ..." She shook her head. "You know, I seen him
just today. Walking into the Natoma restaurant with a woman from his
office. Had his hand on her ass. 'Working late on the new contract
proposals' my ass! And after all he's done to her."

"He ..." I couldn't believe I was asking this. "... forces her to ... ?"

"All the time."

"My God." The whole of Sandy's life suddenly played out in my mind and I
felt soul-sick and ineffectual as I witnessed it; Sandy: under- to
uneducated (as so many young women in this city are), no dreams left,
working nine hours a day in some bakery or laundry or grocery store,
then coming home to a husband who didn't much

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like her and children who-though she might love them and spoil them
rotten now-would grow up following Daddy's example to not much respect
her, and before twenty-five she'd be wearing a scarf around her head to
cover the prematurely gray hair, read only the saddest stories in the
newspaper, and spend any free time she might have watching prime-time
soap operas and getting twelve pounds heavier with each passing year. I
think I'd've known her on-sight, no introductions necessary.

"That poor girl," I said.

"Sometimes," the woman said, "I got half a nerve to just go over there
with my truck and tell her to pack herself and the kids up and come stay
with me. Maybe I should."

"That sounds like a splendid idea."

"Does it?" Look at how alive her eyes became when she heard this;
goodness me, somebody actually thinks I had a splendid idea.

She finished her coffee, took the last bite of her apple pie, then
gathered up her purse and resolve and walked up to me, her hand
extended. "Thank you for listening to me."

"You're welcome."

Still there were tears trying to sneak up on her. "I just feel so bad
for her, y'know?"