"Gene Wolfe - The man in the Pepper Mill" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wolfe Gene)

GENE WOLFE - The man in the Pepper Mill

You really don't have to worry, Tippy," Tippy's mother said in her kindest, gentlest voice. "It was just a minor
tremor, and they happen all the time. We've had worse ones. I'm surprised it woke you up."

Tippy stared at his green beans. "I thought she might've bumped the table. That's all."

"You thought who might have bumped the table?" Tippy's mother's voice was harder, the voice that led to
slaps.

"Nobody."

"Were you talking about Catherine?"

"No," Tippy said, still not sure how Cathy, dead, had become Catherine. "No, ma'am."

"This hasn't been nearly as hard on you as it has on me, Tippy."

"No, ma'am."

"You hated Catherine. You're glad, I'm sure, that you'll never see her again. I loved her, and I'll always, always
miss her."

"Yes, ma'am."

"Your birthday -- " Tippy's mother started to cry. "Your birthday's Sunday. Day after tomorrow."

"Uh huh." The plate was brown but almost green, with little dark green branches around the rim.

"What would you like, Tippy?"

"Nothing."

Tippy's mother sighed, an overworked woman on whose tired shoulders another burden had been laid. "I'll
have to shop for it, Tippy. I'll have to do it tomorrow. Go to the bank in the morning, and go to several stores.
What do you want?"

"Nothing." To make a show of eating, Tippy plunged his fork into a green bean. It was hard, and he knew it
would taste raw.

"You're just a little kid." This was the voice he liked again. "You've got all this to deal with, and you're just a
little kid."

He nodded miserably.

"Catherine's funeral was very, very expensive, Tippy. It cost almost as much as a new car, and I'll be paying it
off for years. So I'd appreciate it very much if you didn't ask for something too expensive. Just one present, an
inexpensive one. Will you do that for me, Tippy?"

"Sure.