"Pike, Christopher - Whisper Of Death.(1991)TXT" - читать интересную книгу автора (Pike Christopher)

Pepper lived with his aunt and uncle. I lived with
my dad. Dad was never at home. He was a long-
distance truck driver. He drove from New York to
L.A., and back again, every week. We had a peculiar
relationship. I was more his pal than his daughter.
When he was home I cleaned his clothes and fed him,
but the way we talked to each other would have made
a child psychologist cringe. We argued, we swore at
each other, and in the end he usually agreed with me.
But we loved each other, too. His name was Sam.

I never knew my mother. From the things Sam had
to say, it didn't sound like he knew her very well,
either. She left on a westbound Greyhound bus when I
was forty-eight hours old. Seemed she wanted to be an
actress in Hollywood, or something.
Pepper's aunt and uncle lived on the other edge of
town from the school, on a miserable farm better
known for its horses than its produce. But like any
farm, good or bad, it had a barn. And it was in that
barn that I lost my virginity after a thorough examina-
tion by Dr. Pepper.

I don't really remember how the date started. We
ate, I know that, but I can't remember where. Then we
went for a long walk, and in Salem, it's not possible to
walk too far without coming back home. We ended up
at Pepper's place. His aunt and uncle were asleep.
Pepper wanted to show me his horse, Shadowfax,
named after Gandalf the wizard's horse in The Lord of
the Rings. It was a nice horse. It was a nice barn, full of
nice, soft hay.

But there was something wicked inside that hay that
almost got me killed. When we began to kiss, Pepper
suddenly tickled me, and I fell back and landed on the
hay. I missed impaling myself on a pitchfork by
inches. Pepper was white when I pulled it out of the
straw beside me.

"Did you set this up?" I asked, the pitchfork in my
hand, pointed at him. "I can see the headlines now.
Poor innocent coed pierced on the eve of greatness."
Pepper grabbed the pitchfork from my hand and
tossed it aside. He wiped the sweat off his forehead. I
could tell he was shaken. He came and knelt beside
me and spoke seriously.

"You are great," he said.