"Robert F. Young - Did You Ever See a Tree Walking" - читать интересную книгу автора (Young Robert F)

what great big shot he is, he spend $300 to cut down the tree! You let the limb fall, like accident, yes?"
"ButтАФbut I couldn't do that," Wesley said. "ItтАФit would be unethical. And I'd probably lose my
job."
One by one, the little 'sparks went out. Slowly she returned the wad of bills to her apron pocket. "I
no want to see you lose your job," she said.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. DelPopolo," Wesley said. He descended the steps and walked away.
He saw the way it probably was with them, and he thought about it all afternoon, working in the tree:
The two of them, young and newly married, coming over from Sicily and settling in Tompkinsville and
starting a business of their own; working day and night through the years, sharing the burden together;
arriving finally at the time when the figures in their bank account justified remodelling and made possible
the realization of the glorious dream of having their names in neon light for the whole wide world to see.
And then.тАФMr. DelPopoloтАЩs perfidy. . .
It was hot in the tree and around 3 o'clock Herb told him to come down and take a break. Wesley
said he'd take it in the tree instead and, ensconcing himself on a wide limb, he leaned back against the
trunk and lit a cigaret. Presently he heard the tinkle of ice cubes and, looking down, he saw Angelica
coming out of the store with a big pitcher of lemonade and a tray of glasses.
"Aren't you coming down now, Wes?" Herb hollered.
"No, wait," Angelica called up. "I'll hand you yours through the window."
Both of them had to stretch a little to make it, but the transference was achieved admirably, and their
hands touched for one of those brief moments so popular with poets. "Thanks," Wesley said.
"You're welcome."
She looked more like Sleeping Beauty than ever, with her elbows propped on the window-sill and
her pretty face cupped in her hands. Suddenly Wesley understood that this was her way of telling him
that she had accepted his apology, and a warmth that had nothing to do with the summer sun coursed
through him. "Did mom try to bribe you?" she asked.
He hesitated a moment, then nodded.
"I was afraid she would. Honestly, you never saw anyone like themтАФthey're just like a couple of
kids. If I wasn't around to carry their notes back and forth, I don't know what they'd do. Now she's
threatening to leave him and go back to Sicily, and she's just stubborn enough to go through with it!"


тАЬWHY didn't he have her name put on the sign, too?" Wesley asked.
"I think he kind of got carried away. For a long time they thought they could never have children, and
then, when they finally did have the only one they could ever have, it was me. So in a way, the sign is his
bid for immortality, and I guess he was so eager to see his name in lights that it probably never occurred
to him that mom might like to see hers, too. And when she got mad at him, his only defence was to get
mad back."
Wesley handed her his empty glass and their hands touched again. He went back to work with an
enthusiasm hitherto alien to him, and the chain saw sang almost without interruption for the remainder of
the after-noon. There was still a lot of the tree left by the time 5 o'clock came around, though. Another
day's topping, at least. But Wesley wouldn't have minded if there'd been two days topping left. Even
three. He was no longer the same young man who had climbed into the branches that morning, and after
they drove back to the Hotel Tompkinsville where they were staying (first storing the chain saw, the
crosscut and the bull rope In Mr. DelPopolo's shed where they'd be safer than in the truck), he sang all
through his shower and all the while he shaved.
The second day of the silver maple was significant on two counts: It was the day Wesley rose to new
heights as a treeman and it was the day he made his first date with Sleeping Beauty.
Herb looked the tree over when Wesley descended after making the final cut. It was not a pleasant
sight to the non-professional eye, with its stubs jutting this way and that and the whole top of it cut off;
but to a tree-man's eye, it was a thing of beauty and could not fail to fall, when notched and crosscut