"picoult, jodi, keeping faith" - читать интересную книгу автора (Picoult Jodi)

he said: If you take your blood pressure
medication religiously, there's no reason
to believe you won't outlive us all."
She shrugs. "This is one less thing for you to do,
when the time comes."
"Oh, for God's sake. Is this about the new
assisted-living community Colin mentioned? Because I
swear, he only thought you'd--"
"Sweetie, calm down. I don't plan
to kick the bucket anytime soon; I just needed a
table in here. I liked the color of the wood. And
I saw a piece on Twentyst.Twenty about a
man in Kentucky who was making these."
Faith stretches out on her back beside the
coffin. "You could sleep in it, Grandma," she
suggests. "You could be like Dracula."
"You've got to admit, the craftsmanship is
to die for," my mother says.
In more ways than one. The mahogany is
exquisite, a smooth, glossy sea. The
joints and bevels are neat and defined, the hinges
bright as a beacon.
"It was a real bargain," my mother adds.
"Please don't tell me you got a used
one."
My mother sniffs and looks at Faith. "Your
mommy needs to loosen up." For years now, my
mother has been telling this in one form or another.
But I cannot forget that the last time I loosened up,
I nearly came apart.
My mother gets down on the floor with Faith,
and together they yank at the brass pallbearer's
handles. Their blond heads--Mom's dyed, my
daughter's fairy-white--are bent so close I
can't tell where one ends and the other begins. Their
horseplay manages to jerk the coffin a few
inches toward them. I stare at the flattened
hollow left in its wake in the carpet, then try
as best I can to fix it with the edge of my shoe.

Colin and I are luckier than most. We
married young, but we've stayed married--in spite
of some fairly intense bumps in the road.
But there's a chemistry involved, too. When
Colin is looking at me, I know he's not
seeing me with ten pounds left behind from pregnancy
or the fine strands of gray in my hair. He
pictures my skin creamy and tight, my hair
hanging down my back, my body a college
student's. He remembers me at my best, because