"Madeliene E Robins - Somewhere In Dreamland Tonight" - читать интересную книгу автора (Robins Madeleine E)

bothering to hide her satisfaction.

Ruth panicked.

She went through the day thinking, how can I go out there? For a moment she
thought, maybe Pearlie will go with me. But Pearline would probably go to the
christening. Even if she didn't Pearline would never allow herself to be
abandoned at Dreamland while Ruth went off on her own. As she transcribed pages
of manuscript on the typewriter her mind was at Coney with him. How could she
get out to Coney? She even thought, perhaps Aunt Min? No, not until Hell froze
over, maybe not even then. The more she thought, the more it seemed that she
would really die if she couldn't get out to Dreamland on Saturday. Her thought
was rattled by the pounding of the typewriter under her fingers. After a while
even Saturday seemed too far off. What would he think when she didn't come?
Would he forgive her? Would he smile on someone else? Ruth imagined his
beautiful smile for someone else. She had to tell him she wasn't coming, that it
wasn't her fault or her idea. All afternoon the feeling grew strong, so that
fear fed more fear, and she couldn't stand it that she wouldn't see him tonight,
tell him everything, how Leda and Jonah and Pearline and Aunt Min were trying to
keep them apart.

At six o'clock she left the office with the other girls, Ruth turned left
instead of right. Leda, waiting for her a few steps away, called after her.

"Ruthie, whererya going?"

Without turning Ruth called back, "You know where I'm going."

What happened that summer?

The thought catches Ruth by surprise. What is happening to Peg right now, that's
more important than what happened twenty years ago on a beach miles away. The
answers seem intertwined to her, they stand on each other's shoulders, if she
can answer the one she'll know the other. Why did I keep this dress? The answer
comes: to remind me.

Of what?

The train wasn't full, but there were still people, even families going out.
Ruth felt they were looking at her, all alone with no friend, no chaperoned. She
pulled her shawl tighter around her and clutched her pocketbook in her lap. What
would she say to him? At the sight of him she knew her doubts would melt away.
Everything would be all right when she saw him. She twirled a strand of hair
around her finger and stared out the window toward the nearing glow of Coney's
lights.

When she got off the train it was all familiar but different. Fewer people,
fewer families. More young men lounging on the benches, eyeing her, calling out
Hello, Sweetheart and Looking for Me, Girlie? Even inside the gates of Dreamland
everything felt subtly wrong the music too sharp, the lights too bright, the