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

Dora just went on doing what she was doing. She heard the neighbors talking, then there were sirens
coming, she heard the ambulance stop at the curb, shoes come running across the sidewalk, and she was
suddenly thrust to one side of things, no longer responsible. She took a deep gasping breath, looking
around for the neighbors. They were standing by the curb talking to a patrolman she knew, Ralph
Gadden. He dismissed them, then came over to Dora to ask what the hell was going on. She told him
what had happened.
"You had any killer bees around here?" one of the paramedics asked. "Hornets, wasps, anything like
that?"
"No, I don't think so. Why?"
"This guy looks like he's stung all over, neck, chest, back, even his legs. The medics are running him to
Memorial. You have any idea what caused this?" He gestured around himself at the dead trees and the
dead roses and the dead junipers.
"No," she said, truly baffled. "That is, I'm not sure. Jared used some weed killer yesterdayтАж"
"Anybody hanging around?" Ralph asked. "Any strangers?"
"I didn't see any. Maybe the people you talked to, those two by the fenceтАж"
Ralph shook his head. "No. They saw him just before you did."
She turned away helplessly, seeing the weed lacily arranged against the front of the house, now almost
six feet tall. As she watched, all the leaflets turned in her direction. She shook her head, telling herself
she was seeing things, then got into the ambulance with Jared. Polly would bring the car, she said. The
two raggedy persons watched them go.
Jared was put into intensive care at the hospital. Ralph was replaced by another cop, one she didn't
know, and he had her tell the story at least five times while someone else queried Polly. Neither of them
had anything worth telling, no matter how many times they told it. No, Jared hadn't yet come home
when she and Polly went to the mall. Yes, they could prove they'd been to the mall, they had their sales
slips, their dinner check stub. They'd walked home. They'd been together all evening until they found

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 THE FAMILY TREE - Sheri S Tepper


Jared. Neither of them could possibly be suspected of anything.
"She tried to kill him," said Jared's mother, from out in the hall, early the following morning. "She was
responsibleтАжthat woman he married."
Dora, hearing this, felt anger again. She almost never got angry, and here lately it was getting to be a
habit, overreacting to stuff.
The detective said, "Dora couldn't have, Mrs. Gerber. She and her sister were elsewhere, and we've
checked the story. The waitress at the restaurant remembers them. It all checks out. Besides, we don't
even know how he was hurt, yet."
Jared's mama made an exclamation of surprise. Dora didn't hear her say anything else.
The next day, when the medical tests came back, they led only to further confusion. Jared's heart had
almost failed following the injection of an herbicidal compound. He had at least a hundred different
puncture wounds on his arms, face and torso. Dora cried, ' The weed by the front stoop! Jared sprayed it
with weed killer. And when Jared grabbed it yesterday, he said it had thorns."
The lab sent someone to look at the weed, but as Polly pointed out to Dora, it had no thorns. "Jared must
have been stuck by something else, Dora. Maybe there were bees on the plant when he grabbed it. The
plant isn't thorny at all. It's justтАжjustтАжwell, I don't know what it is exactly. The leaves look like oak
leaves, but they're in a frond like some kind of acacia. And look at the little seed heads."
"I didn't know it had seeds," said Dora. "It's only been there a few days."
"It must have bloomed some time ago," remarked Polly. "See the little puff balls? Like tiny dandelion
heads."