"Kit Reed - Family Bed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Kit)

I go on anyway. тАФdown at the mall.

So she has to face the fact. тАФNot for long. Howard!
He yawns. тАФDon't worry, honey, he'll be back. Sleep tight.

тАФI said, Howard! When she gets that tone, it scares me shit.

тАФMom, I was only kidding! Billy, what have I done to you?

Dad lunges up in a plume of bedcovers like Moby Dick spouting. тАФOkay, okay!

The minute it's done I feel bad. It's after Lights Out so we don't see our father dress. We don't see what
he slides out of the drawer and snaps on his belt and we don't really know what he'll do when he catches
Bill; we only know that it's happened before and Bill comes back to bed shaken but not changed. It
happens and we never speak of it. We never speak of anything bad. It would wreck the show. Dad
settles into his boots: thump.

I jump out of bed.тАФDaddy, I'll come with. Save him somehow.

Mother hauls me back by the hair. тАФIt's a jungle out there.

тАФBut I have to help!

тАФIt isn't safe.

тАФMom! I want to hit or yell bullshit, but we don't hit or yell in our family. We aren't allowed to whine.
тАФAll the other kids тАж

тАФLie down. I'll read another chapter as an extra treat.

Last month it was Pilgrim's Progress and Moby-Dick, she has a great reading voice but the quizzes
after are hard. Tonight it's Don Quixote, after which she reprises the night-nights and kills the light, after
which we are expected to lie still until sleep rescues us, at least for now.

Like a person could sleep with Bill gone and Daddy out there, armed with God knows what. Plus. Beth's
elbow is digging into my left boob and Dad's toenail scraped my neck when he left. Mom changes the
sheets every day so there are never cocoa stains, but there are still crumbs. Probably this bed thing was
cute when we were babies, but, Mom! Plus you and Daddy hog the pillows with Baby Ronnie jammed
between you; God only knows when you had sex.

For the sake of our mother, we sleep in the belly of the beast, and in exchange for our freedom? We're
famous on TV.

Tomorrow Vandella LeSpire is shooting the Inside Everything show from our very own bed. Mother's
face is creamed to East Judas in preparation, and her hair is tweaked into cornrows on which, let me tell
you, the beads and things look pretty lame. I mean, you can see the scalp and her hair is scrunty dyed
blond. Cornrows are supposed to show that what we are doing is very next, like: nothing retro about
Family Bed. Mother wants people to see us on TV and go, "how wonderful." What a good mother she
is, to do this for her kids. See how safe and happy they are, bonding in the Family Bed.