"Nancy Springer - Number 20" - читать интересную книгу автора (Springer Nancy)

they used to run around together a lot?тАЭ

тАЬDid they? I donтАЩt remember.тАЭ

тАЬWell, I had them both in class, and it seems to me they were very close.тАЭ

I turned around and raked the other way so I could watch. There they sat with
their heads together, their saggy old bosoms almost touching, and Mrs.
SimmermeyerтАЩs baggy old eyes had opened wide. But Mrs. Life just said as if it was
the weather she was talking about, тАЬNick Quickel was over here yes-terday evening,
was what made me think of Charlie Klunk. I wonder if they still keep in touch.тАЭ

тАЬNicky Quickel. IsnтАЩt he the wres-tling coach now?тАЭ

тАЬYes. Junior High. Last I heard.тАЭ

They talked some more, and then Mrs. Simmermeyer went off about her
business. Mrs. Life sat rocking on her porch in her wicker rocker, and after I had
raked as much as I could for a while I went up and sat with her. I was kind of hoping
she would have some sort of chore for me, because Greg wasnтАЩt giving me anything
for raking grass except just letting me live. Some-times Mrs. Life sent me across to
the Post Office with a letter or across to the drugstore to buy her a magazine, and
even if it was just a dinky little errand she always paid me at least a quarter. Like I
said, she was a real nice lady.

But she didnтАЩt send me on any errand that day. We just watched the cars and
stuff go by. When a tour bus went by Mrs. Life said, тАЬThatтАЩs the sixth one to-day.тАЭ

The reason the tour buses go by is that we sit along the river halfway be-tween
the Indian Rock Carvings up-stream and the Indian Echoes Cavern downstream.
And right outside town is the Indian MaidenтАЩs Leap. ThereтАЩs this high cliff above the
river, and some In-dian girl whose loverboy got axed was supposed to have killed
herself by jumping off it. The thing they donтАЩt tell the tourists is that people still kill
themselves by jumping off there. Our town is supposed to have the highest suicide
rate practically in the whole country, and nobody could figure out why. It was in the
paper last year, and my mom and dad talked about it for a week, how so many
people in Pleas-antville killed themselves when it was supposed to be a nice place to
live, no drugs, old-fashioned values, all that. Of course not all the people who killed
themselves took the Leap. Some of them took pills or shot themselves or whatever.
My one girlfriendтАЩs grandpap killed himself with a hunting rifle last winter and he
blew his head apart so good nobody could go in the room af-terward. They had to
pay a cleaning service eight hundred dollars to get rid of the mess, all the little bits of
ear and nose and eyeballs and stuff. You would think he could have at least done it
out-side the house.

тАЬThose tour buses smell terrible, donтАЩt they?тАЭ Mrs. Life said to me.

I went back to raking, and more peo-ple stopped and talked with Mrs. Life,
and maybe she said something to them about how Charlie Klunk and Nicky Quickel
used to be real close, but I donтАЩt know. ItтАЩs not like I listened to every-thing she said