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

That sounded logical enough. It might even be true. Or, she might have married him on the presumption
that marriage would let her escape from herself. On the farm, she'd been too busy to worry about herself,
but once the farm was gone, there was too much time alone, time to replay her life. The chances she'd
missed, or muffed. The mistakes she'd made. The college she'd had a chance to go to if she'd been able
to leave the kids dependent entirely on Grandma and Grandpa, which she felt wouldn't have been right.
The plum of a job she'd turned down because she'd have had to move away. So, instead, when Michael
graduated high school back in 1984, when it was clear all the brothers and sisters were going to grow up
and have lives of their own, she'd gone to the police academy, right here in town, where she could work
but still live on the farm and help out.
None of which she said as she wound up her explanation to Loulee, not that she owed Loulee an
explanation. "Besides, Jared isтАжwell, he's predictable. I feel like I always know what he's going to do
next." God knows that was true.
"How exciting." Loulee flared a nostril.
Dora forced another sprinkle of light laughter. "My job is excitement enough. It keeps me busy."
"Well, of course it does," said Loulee. "I just can't imagine how you became a cop, though. You don't
seem the type. Not at all."


file:///C|/Documents%20and%20Settings/harry%20kruis...r/Sheri%20S.%20Tepper%20-%20The%20Family%20Tree.htm (6 of 333)23-2-2006 17:57:17
 THE FAMILY TREE - Sheri S Tepper


"What type am I?"
"Oh, I don't know. You look sort of studious to me. Librarian, maybe, you read so much. Or astronomer,
because you're a stargazer." She giggled. "But not a cop!"
Dora knew well enough how she became a cop. Settling things among eight siblings gave you a very
good foundation for working with people, and finding out who was really to blame was itself a course in
investigating crime. Most importantly, being a cop meant having rules for everything. If you studied the
book and did it by the book, you had nothing to blame yourself for. Once you knew the rules, you could
relax and be yourself. You didn't have to second-guess yourself.
"I like it," she said.
"Well, of course, dear, or you wouldn't do it," said Loulee. "And you've got plenty of time to have a
family, don't you? You're not even thirty-five yet."
She was now. Since yesterday, a fact which everyone seemed to have overlooked, including Jared.
Thirty-five years old, thirteen years on the job. Not that she'd ever made a big fuss over her birthday. At
home, they'd had three birthday parties a year. One on the fourth of July for the three born in May, June
and July; one on Halloween for the four September through December kids; and one on Valentine's day
for the January and March kids. Three sets of cakes and parties was all Dora and Grandma had been able
to manage.
The first of the younger kids, which is what Dora always called the other eight, had been born when
Dora was five. That was Michael, and he'd been a howler, and Mama hadn't felt well enough to walk
him or rock him or dandle him, and Daddy had to have his sleep, or, so he said, he couldn't get anything
done the next day (not that he got anything done anyhow), so Dora had done most of the baby tending.
All the summer after he was born, and most of the year after that, with only time out for school.
"Take care of the baby, Dora. You're his big sister. That's why babies have big sisters."
She remembered Daddy's voice saying that in his slightly peevish voice. She recalled Little Dora feeling
the weight of those words, more burdensome than the weight of Michael in her arms. He was a big baby,
hard for her to hold. It was hard becoming big sister. She had to become an entirely different person.
Sometimes now, when the day had been long and she lay drowsily in her bed with everything quiet, she
remembered Little Dora as she might remember a story she had heard. A little girl who had heard