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

long enough. I think you ought to go on and have your vacation; you've earned it. My friend Loulee's
dying for a chance to be useful. And Charlene Dermot, Phil's wife, is a realtor. Between the two of them,
they'll find me a place."
Polly said she'd leave the day after next, and while she was on the phone making reservations, Helen
Gerber rang the doorbell. Dora asked her in, not too politely.
Jared's mother flushed, then fixed her eyes on the carpet. "I know you were upset with me the other day.
I didn't mean you, you know. When I said it was that woman's faultтАФ"
"Well, who the hell else did you mean?" Dora wasn't in a mood to be forgiving. "You said the woman he
marriedтАФ"
"He was married before. To that Dionne girl, the slut."
Dora's mouth fell open. "Married? Jared?"
"She wasn't even old enough to get married, only fifteen, but he ran off with her. First I knew of it was
when he called me and said he'd run off with her and gotten married. I had to tell her mother, and she
cursed him up one side and down the other and me, too. She said Jared had interfered with the girl, that
he'd have to pay for it someday. Then when I told her I was having the marriage annulled, she just
laughed. She said what Jared had started you couldn't annul." She sniffed. "Well, I got it annulled
anyhow."
"And you think she's responsible for poisoning Jared? We can sure find out, Momma Gerber. That's a
police job, and if you suspect herтАж"
Momma Gerber shook her head slowly, mouth pinched. "No. The words just popped out of my mouth
before I thought. It was all a tempest in a teapot, even back then, what? Almost thirty years ago! A
couple of days after he went off with her, Jared came back and told me the girl had run away from him.
He didn't seem too broken up. Her mother went off looking for her, and I haven't seen either one of them
since. It's just when I saw Jared there, so paleтАжthe words just popped out."
"I'm not really following this," Dora said. "Who exactly are we talking about?"
The older woman looked momentarily confused. "I'm talking about the mother of the girl Jared married."
"Wasn't she Mrs. Dionne?"
"She and her girl were some kind of cousins who came to town that summer to visit the Dionnes. And
all the boys in the neighborhood, including Jared, started trailing after the girl like dogs after a bitch in
heat! And the Dionne boys told Jared to stay away from her, and I guess that made Jared mad, so he took


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 THE FAMILY TREE - Sheri S Tepper


her off and married her. Anyhow, the whole thing, fire and all, was over in a few weeks. That's water
over the dam, long gone, but I wanted to apologize."
Dora wasn't ready to discuss the fact she was leaving Jared, so she contented herself with saying,
"Thanks, Momma Gerber. I do appreciate your clarifying that."
She had the day free. Jared was out of intensive care. She dithered for a while until Polly asked her why
she was so antsy.
"I'm going to go tell Jared I'm leaving."
"While he's in the hospital?"
She'd been thinking about it. Somehow she didn't like the idea of telling him later, after he was home,
after they were alone in the house. "Yes," she blurted. "While he's there."
Polly asked, "You want me to come with you?"
Dora almost said yes, then decided against it. It wasn't Polly's problem.
Jared was alone in the room, propped up, staring at the wall. His eyes swiveled toward her when she