"TUROW, SCOTT - THE BURDEN OF PROOF" - читать интересную книгу автора (Turrow Scott)

this, clung to one another. And there in the living room, Stern, at
last, longed for Clara. He had been waiting for it. More than the
disorder and the loss, at this moment there was the absence.

When he looked up, Marta was watching. It had savaged Stern with sorrow
to see her the night she had arrived. Marta, brave Marta, his boldest
child, trod soldier-like up the walk, a canvas bag slung over her
shoulder, weeping openly as soon as she climbed from the taxi. Stern
embraced her at the door. 'Daddy, I never thought she was a happy
person, but--' Throttled by emotion, Marta got no further. Stern held
her and suffered privately the unequivocal nature of his daughter's
estimate of her mother. She had always held Clara at greater distance
than the other two; as a result, perhaps, she.had more to regret.

Across the' room, his daughter, with her father's tiny close-set eyes,
looked at him sadly now.

I miss her, too, she mouthed.

Stern, a frequent morning chef, cooked for the entire group, He fried
eggs and flapjacks, and Marta squeezed grapefruit for juice, a family
tradition. By nine, an hour before the mortician's limousine was to
arrive, they were all fed and dressed, quietly gathered once more in the
living room.

"How about bridge?" Marta asked. She prided herself on being
unrestrained by convention. In most things, Marta styled herself in the
ways of the late sixties. She had been a child then and took it as a
time of great romance; she went about in flowing gowns and high-laced
boots, with her wind-sprung hair."Mom liked it when we played."

"Oh, sure," said Peter. "She liked it when we squaredanced, too, while
we were kids. We can do-si-do to the chapel."

Marta whispered to her brother, Oh fuck off, but smiled.

Marta had always tempered her rivalry with Peter, and she granted him
special liberties now. Kate's tears were constant, but Pete, of the
three, seemed the hardest hit, morose, pensive, persistently out of
balance. He went off by himself at many moments but returned inevitably
to the comfort of his sisters. Close-knit, Stern's children appeared to
take strength from each other:

Marta again mentioned bridge. "Daddy, would you mind?"

Stern lifted his palms, not quite an answer.

"Will you play?" Kate asked her father.

Silvia motioned Stern forward, encouraging him.