"Geoff Ryman - Was" - читать интересную книгу автора (Ryman Geoff)

"I'm hungry," she said.

"Well I ate up all my pie, or I surely would have let you have some."

The place was silent. The station had a porch and a platform and a wooden
waiting room. The tracks ran beside a river. Dorothy could see no town. She
recognized nothing. She pushed the hair out of her eyes. Nothing was right.

"Where is everybody?" she asked. She was scared, as if there were ghosts
in the low orange light.

"Oh, next train won't be here till past six. Come on, I'll show you where you
can set."

He walked on ahead of her. He didn't hold her hand. Mama would have held
her hand, or Papa. She followed him.

Her ticket was pinned to her dress, along with a set of instruc-tions. "Will
this ticket get me back to St. Lou?" she asked. If there was nobody coming
to meet her?

"I don't know," said Johnson, and held open the door of the waiting room.
It had bare floors of fine walnut, wainscoting, a stove, benches. There were
golden squares of light on the floor.

"You must be tired. You just rest here a bit, and I'll see if I can't find
somebody to go fetch your aunty."

Don't go! Dorothy thought. She was afraid and she couldn't speak. Stay!

"You'll be okay. We'll get you sorted out." He smiled and closed the door.
Dorothy was alone.

This was the time when Mama would lay the table. Mama would sing to
herself, lightly, quietly. Sometimes Dorothy would help her, putting out the
knives and forks. Sometimes Dorothy would have a bath, with basins of
warm water poured over both her and her little brother, Bobo. Papa would
come home and shout, "How're my little angels?" Dorothy would come
running and giggling toward him. Don't tickle me, she would demand, so he
would. And they would all eat together, sunlight swirling in the dust as
shadows lengthened.

No dinner now.

And later people would come around, and they'd all talk and sometimes ask
Dorothy to stand up on a chair and sing. The chairs would scrape on the
floor as they were pulled back in a hurry, for cards or for a dance. Papa
would play the fiddle. They would let Dorothy sit up and drink a little wine.
People would hold Bobo up by his arms so that he could dance too,
grinning.