"Pat Murphy - Rachel In Love" - читать интересную книгу автора (Murphy Pat)

to Jake from the end of the aisle. --I will help.

When Jake pushes the cart from the room filled with cages, Rachel follows him closely. The rubber
wheels of the cleaning cart rumble softly on the linoleum floor. They pass through a metal door into a
corridor where the floor is carpeted and the air smells of chalk dust and paper.
Offices let off the corridor, each one a small room furnished with a desk, bookshelves, and a blackboard.
Jake shows Rachel how to empty the wastebaskets into a garbage bag. While he cleans the blackboards,
she wanders from office to office, trailing the trashfilled garbage bag.

At first, Jake keeps a close eye on Rachel. But after cleaning each blackboard, he pauses to refill a cup
from the whiskey bottle that he keeps wedged between the Saniflush and the window cleaner. By the
time he is halfway through the second cup; he is treating her like an old friend, telling her to hurry up so
that they can eat dinner.

Rachel works quickly, but she stops sometimes to gaze out the office windows. Outside, moonlight
shines on a sandy plain, dotted here and there with scrubby clumps of rabbit brush.

At the end of the corridor is a larger room in which there are several desks and typewriters. In one of the
wastebaskets, buried beneath memos and candybar wrappers, she finds a magazine. The title is Love
Confessions and the cover has a picture of a man and woman kissing. Rachel studies the cover, then
takes the magazine, tucking it on the bottom shelf of the cart.

Jake pours himself another cup of whiskey and pushes the cart to another hallway. Jake is working
slower now, and as he works he makes humming noises, tuneless sounds that he feels only as pleasant
vibrations. The last few blackboards are sloppily done, and Rachel, finished with the wastebaskets,
cleans the places that Jake missed.

They eat dinner in the janitor's storeroom, a stuffy windowless room furnished with an ancient
greasestained couch, a battered blackandwhite television, and shelves of cleaning supplies. From a shelf,
Jake takes the paper bag that holds his lunch: a baloney sandwich, a bag of barbecued potato chips, and
a box of vanilla wafers. From behind the gallon jugs of liquid cleanser, he takes a magazine. He lights a
cigarette, pours himself another cup of whiskey, and settles down on the couch. After a moment's
hesitation, he offers Rachel a drink, pouring a shot of whiskey into a chipped ceramic cup.

Aaron never let Rachel drink whiskey, and she samples it carefully. At first the smell makes her sneeze,
but she is fascinated by the way that the drink warms her throat, and she sips some more.

As they drink, Rachel tells Jake about the men who shot her and the woman who pricked her with a
needle, and he nods. --The people here are crazy, he signs.

--I know, she says, thinking of the old chimp with the electrode in his head. You won't tell them I can
talk, will you?

Jake nods. --I won't tell them anything.

--They treat me like I'm not real, Rachel signs sadly. Then she hugs her knees, frightened at the thought
of being held captive by crazy people. She considers planning her escape: she is out of the cage and she
is sure she could outrun Jake. As she wonders about it, she finishes her cup of whiskey. The alcohol
takes the edge off her fear. She sits close beside Jake on the couch, and the smell of his cigarette smoke
reminds her Aaron. For the first time since Aaron's death she feels warm and happy.