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

At the end of the first week, on a moonlit evening, Rachel decides to let the animals go free. She releases
the rabbits one by one, climbing on a stepladder to reach down into the cage and lift each placid bunny
out. She carries each one to the back door, holding it for a moment and stroking the soft warm fur. Then
she sets the animal down and nudges it in the direction of the green grass that grows around the perimeter
of the fenced garden.

The rats are more difficult to deal with. She manages to wrestle the large rat cage off the shelf, but it is
heavier than she thought it would be. Though she slows its fall, it lands on the floor with a crash and the
rats scurry to and fro within. She shoves the cage across the linoleum floor, sliding it down the hall, over
the doorsill, and onto the back patio. When she opens the cage door, rats burst out like popcorn from a
popper, white in the moonlight and dashing in all directions.

Once, while Aaron was taking a nap, Rachel walked along the dirt track that led to the main highway.
She hadn't planned on going far. She just wanted to see what the highway looked like, maybe hide near
the mailbox and watch a car drive past. She was curious about the outside world and her fleeting
fragmentary memories did not satisfy that curiosity.

She was halfway to the mailbox when Aaron came roaring up in his old jeep. "Get in the car," he shouted
at her. "Right now!" Rachel had never seen him so angry. She cowered in the jeep's passenger seat,
covered with dust from the road, unhappy that Aaron was so upset. He didn't speak until they got back
to the ranch house, and then he spoke in a low voice, filled with bitterness and suppressed rage.

"You don't want to go out there," he said. "You wouldn't like it out there. The world is filled with petty,
narrowminded, stupid people. They wouldn't understand you. And anyone they don't understand, they
want to hurt. They hurt anyone who's different. If they know that you're different, they punish you, hurt
you. They'd lock you up and never let you go."

He looked straight ahead, staring through the dirty windshield. "It's not like the shows on TV, Rachel,"
he said in a softer tone. "It's not like the stories in books."

He looked at her then and she gestured frantically. --I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

"I can't protect you out there," he said. "I can't keep you safe."

Rachel took his hand in both of hers. He relented then, stroking her head. "Never do that again," he said.
"Never."

Aaron's fear was contagious. Rachel never again walked along the dirt track and sometimes she had
dreams about bad people who wanted to lock her in a cage.

Two weeks after Aaron's death, a blackandwhite police car drives slowly up to the house. When the
policemen knock on the door, Rachel hides behind the couch in the living room. They knock again, try
the knob, then open the door, which she had left un-locked.

Suddenly frightened, Rachel bolts from behind the couch, bound-ing toward the back door. Behind her,
she hears one man yell, "My Godl It's a gorillal"

By the time he pulls his gun, Rachel has run out the back door and away into the hills. From the hills she
watches as an ambulance drives up and two men in white take Aaron's body away. Even after the
ambulance and the police car drive away, Rachel is afraid to go back to the house. Only after sunset