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

bindweed from Grandma's garden because Grandma wouldn't use spray.
"You can't kill bindweed this way, Grandma!" That'd been her plea from the time she was thirteen until
she was almost grown.
"Not tryin' to kill it," the old woman said, grinning on one side, the way she did (like a fox, said
Grandpa). "Just tryin' to keep it in its place, teach it some manners."
Dora doubted very much that the bindweed learned anything, including manners. Grandma should have
seen Jared's place. Jared's place was so mannerly it almost begged your pardon. Jared's place was cowed.
"How come you always say 'Jared's place,' " her friend Loulee asked her. "You never say 'home.' You
always say 'Jared's place.' "
"Well, because it is," Dora answered. "He had it before he ever met me, and he decides what goes in it,
and I sort ofтАжjust live there." As in another board-inghouse, sort of, except in this one she cooked and
did laundry for her keep.
"How come you two don't have kids?"
"I don't know," Dora had answered in a genial voice, lying through her teeth. "Not everybody has
children, you know. With all this overpopulation, not having is probably better anyhow."
"Oh, so it's ethical with you."
"No." She laughed, showing how unimportant the subject was. "I just pretend it is when people get nosy.
Children just never happened."
Loulee didn't take offense, unfortunately. "Dora, there are such things as doctors."
"I know." She frowned, then, distinctly uncomfortable, making herself say lightly, "I've got plenty of
time, Loulee. Give it a rest."
Loulee never knew when to quit. "Jared got plenty of time, too?"
Jared was somewhat older than Dora, and though his age might be a factor, the real reason they didn't
have children was that they had never had sex. Dora admitted to being an innocent in such matters, from
an experiential point of view, but after eight brothers and sisters, she certainly knew where babies came
from. On their wedding night, Jared had indicated that the front upstairs bedroom was to be hers, saying
casually that he didn't care for physical sorts of things, and at his age, those sorts of things weren't
necessary. Which was one way of putting it.
The real question in Dora's mind had less to do with children than with why she had stayed married to
Jared when it would have been perfectly simple at that point, or at any time since, to get an annulment.

file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...r/Sheri%20S.%20Tepper%20-%20The%20Family%20Tree.htm (5 of 333)23-2-2006 17:57:17
 THE FAMILY TREE - Sheri S Tepper


Was she, herself, interested in that sort of thing? Had she realized subconsciously that Jared wasn't? Had
she married him for that reason? She honestly couldn't say. During the first thirty-three years of her life
she couldn't recall that she had ever had time to worry about it. There had been some men she'd thought
were pleasant enough, but never any trumpets blowing. It might have been different if she'd been hungry
for children, but being the eldest of nine almost guarantees a person won't be hungry for children.
Especially remembering a mama like Dora's mama, who actively loved getting pregnant, who indolently
loved being pregnant, who had no trouble producing them one right after the other, but wasn't up to
taking care of them once they were born.
From the time Dora was five she'd been changing didies and warming bottles and dandling little howlers
so they'd stop howling. She could handle it without breaking a sweat, if and when, but it wasn't
something she was exactly pining for. She figured she'd already done her duty by the human race.
"Why did you marry Jared?" Loulee had asked. "Forgive me being real blunt, but you don't seem to care
that much for him."
Why had she married Jared? "I grew up in a big family, and when my grandmother died and the last of
the kids left home, I missed having people aroundтАж"