"Sheri S. Tepper - The Family Tree" - читать интересную книгу автора (Tepper Sherri)

herself to react to what she'd just seen. From Jared's facial expression you'd think he'd been slaying a
monster that had eaten his family.
Jared slammed into the kitchen, banging the door behind him. "That damn weed came back." He
scowled his way past her. She heard water running, doors jerked open and slammed closed. The banging
and hammering diminished, slowly, and he had a less unpleasant expression on his face when he came
back to the kitchen. They always ate in the kitchen unless they had "company," that is, Jared's mother.
Jared didn't like to mess up the dining room unless they had to.
"Supper ready?" he asked from the door. He always asked if supper was ready. Even when it was on the
table, he asked, as though what was on the table might be leftovers from some other meal she had served
to someone else.
"Just dishing up," she said, setting the bowl of slaw on the table. "Did you have a good day?"
"As good as could be expected," he said, plopping himself down in the chair and reaching for the bread
and butter. It was what he always said. Never good. Never bad. Just as good as could be expected. She'd
promised herself she wouldn't ask him, but she always forgot and the question popped out. As though
he'd programmed her.
Maybe he had. Here she was, getting the meat loaf out of the oven, dishing up the attendant mushy
potatoes and carrots, taking the lid off the saucepan of overcooked green beans, foods she had never
prepared before she married Jared. The too-sweet slaw was on the table with the required white bread
and the real butter and the grape jelly. Jared looked it over, slowly, as though tallying each item, then
helped himself and fell to. It was a typical Jared meal, all prepared in accordance with the rules for
"feeding a working man," that had been communicated to Dora by Jared's mother. Meals were uniformly
dull, uniformly high in calories and fat, and Jared didn't gain an ounce.
Dora took a helping of slaw, a small slice of meat loaf, and some carrots.
"You need more food than that," he said disapprovingly.


file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...r/Sheri%20S.%20Tepper%20-%20The%20Family%20Tree.htm (13 of 333)23-2-2006 17:57:17
 THE FAMILY TREE - Sheri S Tepper


"I really don't, Jared. I've gained five pounds the last couple of months."
"Ummm. Not enough exercise."
"Probably." Though how she could get more exercise without disrupting Jared's mealtime schedule was
a problem.
"Tastes good," said Jared, around a mouthful of meat loaf. "Mom's recipe?"
"Of course," said Dora. Personally, she thought the meat loaf tasted of bread crumbs and steak sauce, but
not at all of meat. If she substituted soy-something or sawdust for the meat, the taste would be the same,
a flavor she identified as vague tomato. But then, Jared liked vague tomato. He liked vegetables boiled
into submission. He liked things deep fried or chicken fried or barbecued. He liked his eggs hard boiled
or scrambled or fried crisp in bacon grease, with the yolks broken so they didn't run at all. Salad dressing
was okay, but not mayonnaise. She couldn't imagine why he didn't gain weight. All the exercise he got
most of the year was walking from the car to his office.
Of course, mental activity could burn up the calories, and Jared probably did a lot of that at Pacific-
Alaskan. Jared worked in the research and development department, thinking up more ways to use wood
pulp, or designing machines to cut down and chew up trees more easily. Jared not only designed the
machines, but he made the models. Jared probably made quite a good salary, too. Though Dora had
never been told, or asked, about Jared's financial position, she knew he could have lived a lot more
luxuriously if he wanted to. A few times he'd mentioned a trip one of his colleagues was taking, or an
event he'd like to see, but when she'd suggested he go ahead and do it, he'd always said no, he'd rather
spend his money on tools he needed, on expensive equipment he couldn't do without. He was always