"Kate Wilhelm - Julian" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wilhelm Kate)

"There could have been a fan on her, or maybe she dried her hair before she
came out, or she wore a shower cap."

He shook his head.

"Julian, it has to be something like that, anything else is impossible.
People can't simply dry off like that. You were a little kid. You could
remember it wrong."

Again he shook his head. "Let's drop it. Hungry? I'm starved."

"Julian, wait..." But he had waved to the waitress, and she became silent,
watching him.

"It's all right," Julian said. "Don't let it bug you. Okay?"

"Sure."
They ordered. Julian asked her about her summer plans and hardly listened to
her answer, which seemed involved and complicated. He had to go back to
Cincinnati, he knew, and to check out the people who had been there. When? He
didn't know the date, just that it had been late in the school season, near
the end of his sixth grade. There had been seven cars parked there, he
remembered clearly, and recalled the man cutting grass, the dog running,
children playing in the pool.

"Julian? Please, let's just eat and get out of here."

Rachel's voice was strained, and he realized that the waitress had brought
their orders.

"Sorry," he said. Rachel looked at her soup. He did not know anything else to
say. What he would have given last year to be sitting across the table from
her, talking with her like this, he thought, and then, not only last year,
last month even. Or yesterday. It never occurred to him to wonder why she was
with him, why she was bothering. He felt only impatience. He wanted to eat
and go back to his room and call his father for money. There had to be a
decent reason, not just a little jaunt to Cincinnati. Special study course?
Research project? He would think of something. He looked up to find Rachel
studying him again.

"Will you do me a favor?" she asked quietly. "Will you talk to Dr. Yates?"

He shook his head. "No reason now," he said, smiling. "Yesterday there was,
but not now."

"You know I switched my major from math to psychology. I don't pretend to
know much yet, but I think what you're doing is dangerous, more than
repressing a memory even."