"HOMEBODS" - читать интересную книгу автора (Paul Barbara)

Several voices answered in the affirmative, and Jake picked out
the healthiest-looking of the volunteers, a teen-aged boy who seemed
to have all of his body parts intact. The two of them went out to the
driveway and wrestled the trunk out of the car. Back in the kitchen,
the boy said, "Where do you want it, Mama Sue?"

"Oh, down in the basement, dear, thank you."

Jake found himself on the wrong end of the trunk going down the
narrow, poorly lighted stairway, but they made it to the bottom without
mishap. Then just as they were moving the trunk against a wall, the boy
dropped his end; Jake barely got his foot out of the way in time.

"Hey, good reflexes!" the boy said blithely.

Jake muttered something under his breath and headed back up to
the kitchen. There he turned to the boy and said, "Er, thanks for your
help, ah..."

"Cousin Rathbone." The boy gave him a cheery grin and headed
back toward the dining room.

Jake turned to Mama Sue. "Did he say `Rathbone'?"

"Yes, dear. His name's Basil, but no one calls him that.
It's a kind of joke, you see." She and Uncle Tedward were busy
putting meats in the oven to finish roasting while they were all
at the funeral. "Why don't you go find Annie?" Mama Sue asked.
"It's time we were leaving for the cemetery."

Jake found her in the rear living room (the house had two)
talking to the little girl with the Mickey Mouse Band-Aid on her
nose. "And you mustn't run around during the funeral, Little Marcie,"
Annie was saying earnestly. "All you kids--you mustn't run."

"Mama already told us that," Little Marcie said.

"Well, I'm telling you again. No running! Now, scoot."
The child ran away as fast as she could, and Annie turned to smile
at Jake. "Time to go?"

Outside, the family's automobiles were parked all up and
down the street; still, Jake wondered if there were enough to
accommodate so many people. But before the mob on the sidewalk
could start getting in the cars, a big Greyhound bus lumbered by,
belching black smoke over everyone. "This is too much!" Malcolm
Senior said. "I say we get a lawyer."

"No," a woman Jake couldn't identify chimed in, "we need to