"Yvonne Navarro - I Know What to Do2" - читать интересную книгу автора (Navarro Yvonne)

Dolly was living on public aid down in Missouri with her two sons from a
previous marriage, a couple of pre-teen Nazis who liked things like
dissecting
live frogs and pulling legs off grasshoppers. One-fifty a month isn't much
until
you supplement it with twenty-five percent of my weekly take-home pay and
double
child support from some other guy. It's hard going to work when you know that
ten hours a week is for some bitch in a backwoods Missouri town where eighty
bucks will rent you a farmhhouse for a month. And here I was, a working joe
who
couldn't afford a new pair of boots.
It's a good thing I'd just finished my signature when the dog howled or I
might
have dug right through the paper. The ink pen went flying out of my fingers
when
I jumped up and both Maggie and I ran for the hallway. My attention had been
centered on the check and my ex and I hadn't even seen Chanci creep all the
way
into the bathroom. Now she came rolling out as if something had knocked her
off
her feet, paws flailing at her nose. She slipped on the linoleum and went
down,
yowls getting louder as Maggie grabbed for her collar and I grabbed for
anything.
Maggie finally threw herself across the dog and pinned her to the floor.
Chanci's howling filled the apartment as she struggled wildly and whipped her
head back and forth. I already had an idea about what had happened.
"What's the matter with her, John?" Maggie cried.
"Hold her!" I shouted, lunging for her head. I guessed right away that one of
those cockroach things had bit her on the face; what I couldn't figure out
was
how we were going to calm the old girl down before she had a heart attack.
I also hadn't counted on the damned thin still hanging onto Chanci's nose.
The three of us scrambled around on the floor for about thirty seconds or so
--
I admit I didn't know what to do. I sure as shit didn't want to grab that
thing
with my hand, but I had to do something: Chanci's head was jerking in every
direction and I could see flashes of the insect's dangling black body -- it
showed no signs of letting go. Her yowling was getting worse; I was afraid it
was chewing on her.
"John!" Maggie sounded on the verge of hysteria.
"Hang on -- I'll be right back!" I ran back into the kitchen, sliding on the
floor and cracking my knee as I came around the cabinet and yanked out a
drawer.
Behind me, Maggie's cries of Stay! were getting hoarse and Chanci's yelps
were
coming faster.
"John, I can't hold her!"