"Thompson, Jim - Criminal, The" - читать интересную книгу автора (Thompson Jim)

"Bobbie . . ." she said.
"Yeah?" I said.
"Do you remember how we used to play together all day and then when I had to go home or you had to go home, we'd. . . we'd kiss each other good-bye." -
"Heck," I said. "Yeah, I guess so."
"How long ago has it been, Bobbie? Since you kissed me."
"How do I know?" I said. "For gosh sake, Josie!"
"Well," she said. "If you're going to get mad every time I say anything, maybe I'd better go."
"Go ahead," I said. "You're the one that's mad. All I said was I didn't remember."
"You are too mad," she said. "I can always tell when you are."
"And I guess I don't know when I am," I said. "That's pretty rich, that is."
"You can't look me in the eye and say you're not mad," she said.
"I could if I wanted to," I said. "For gosh sake, Josie, why do you got to keep jabbering and fussing about--"
"You can't do it," she said. "I dare you to."
Well, I wasn't taking any dare from her, not any crazy old girl like that. So I rolled over, sort of, and looked at her and said I wasn't mad. I said it a couple of times, looking right at her, almost, but of course that wasn't good enough for her.
"You're mad all right," she said. "I can tell. If you weren't, well, you know what you'd do."
"For gosh sake, Josie," I said.
"Well, you would," she said. "Oh, B-Bobbie, what's the matter w-with--"
And, then, I hadn't done a darned thing, not a doggone thing, but she began to cry. She kind of cried, but not too much, and she sort of held her arms out, so, well, you know. I kissed her, and she kissed me, and she kept her arms around me when I started to move away.
I could feel her like I had when I'd got the cigarettes and matches, only I felt her more, and I thought about Dad and what he'd said, but I couldn't pull away. She held onto me, with our faces pressed together, and she kissed me on the ear a few times and I guess I did, too, I mean I kissed her on the ear, and now and then we kind of whispered things.
"Bobbie . . ."
"Yeah?"
"This is kind of like that day over at your house, isn't it? When Daddy raised all that big fuss over nothing."
"We weren't doing anything," I said. "We weren't doing a darned thing."
"He's crazy," she said. "Anyway, well even if we had been, what difference would it've made? He does it, he and Mama. if it's so bad, why--"
"Josie," I said. "For gosh sake, are you crazy? You know good and well that's--well, it's not the same."
She said, all right, if that was the way I felt, if I was going to get mad every time she opened her mouth. So I said what the heck was wrong with her, who was getting mad, and I kissed her again to prove that I wasn't.
"Bobbie. . . did you ever?" she said.
"Huh-uh," I said.
"If I . . . promise you'll never tell anyone if I tell you something?"
"Well, sure," I said.
She hesitated. Then, she put her mouth real close to my ear and whispered.
"Aw," I said. "You're kidding."
"All right," she said. "I don't care if you don't believe me."
I swallowed. My mouth seemed kind of all full of spit all of a sudden. "W-Who--when, Josie?"
"Last summer. When I was going into town one Saturday. I was almost to the station and this man, I don't know who he was, but anyway he had a big car, and he asked me if I didn't want a ride. So . . ."
"Gosh," I said, "you hadn't ought to've gone with him, Josie. He--why, he might have been crazy or somethin' and--"
"Pooh." She shrugged. "People just make those stories up to scare their kids."
"The heck they do," I said. "You read about guys like that in the newspapers all the time. They get a girl in their car, and then they--after they've done it they get scared--and they, well, you've read about 'em yourself, Josie."
"Well," she shrugged again. "Well, anyway, I did. He did it to me."
I didn't say anything. I couldn't right then because I had to keep swallowing.
"He was sort of playing around," she said, "and after a while he drove off the highway and pulled up behind a big sign board. H-He"--she shivered and pulled me closer--"it hurt awful, Bobbie."
"Gosh," I said. "For gosh sake, Josie."
"I. . . I thought I was going to bleed all over everything. Even the second time when, well, you know, I shouldn't have . .
I swallowed again, hard, and she ran her hand through my hair. Then, she took her hand away and I could feel her fumbling for something down in her pants pocket. She, found it, finally, the thing she was looking for, and squeezed it into my hand.
"B-Bobbie. . . . You know what that is?"
"Yeah, I guess so," I said.
"I copped it out of Mama and Daddy's bedroom. I. are they all alike, Bobbie? I mean, will they fit anyone?"
"I guess so," I said. "Gosh, how do I know? I guess they will."
"Would they, you? W--Would that one?"
"I--Josie!" I said. "Josie, what--d-do you--"