"Timothy Zahn - The Green and the Gray" - читать интересную книгу автора (Zahn Timothy)

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The Green and the Gray


She was still bobbing around, searching for the missing ring. For a moment he considered getting
down and seeing if he could help this along a little. But no. She knew better than he did where it had
slipped off, and he would just be in the way.
Taking a deep breath, trying to calm himself, he watched the other people streaming out the doors. If
she didn't hurry, he told himself darkly, they weren't going to get a cab.


The last stragglers were strolling toward the exits by the time Caroline finally spotted her ring,
hiding behind the front leg of the chair in front of hers. "Found it," she announced, retrieving the
wayward jewelry.
Roger didn't reply. He's angry, she realized, an all-too-familiar sinking feeling settling into her
stomach. Angry, or annoyed, or frustrated. Like he always seemed to be lately. Especially with her.
She felt her eyes filling with tears as she carefully climbed back to her feet, tears of frustration and
some annoyance of her own. I didn't drop it on purpose, she thought angrily in his direction. I didn't
see you offering to help, either.
But it was no use. He hadn't liked the play, and he was probably steaming over that man who'd
bumped into him a minute ago. But no matter what happened, or whose fault it was, in the end it all
got focused on her. On her slowness, on her lack of organization, on whatever else she did that
irritated him.
He was already moving toward the aisle by the time she had collected her coat and purse, his back
rippling with impatience. Roger never yelled at herтАФthat wasn't his styleтАФbut he could do a
brooding silence that hurt more than her father's quicksilver temper ever had.
In some ways she wished he would yell. At least then he would be talking honestly instead of
pretending everything was all right when it wasn't.
But that would require him to be assertive. No chance of that happening.
No chance of getting a cab now, either. That would irritate him all the more, especially given the
near-argument they'd had on the subject as they were getting ready to leave this evening.
With a sigh, she headed off behind his impatient back, her vision blurring again with tears. Why
couldn't she ever do anything right?


Sure enough, by the time they stepped out into the cool October air, the line of cabs that would have
gathered at the curb for the post-performance crowd had vanished. "Blast," Roger muttered under his
breath, looking up and down Broadway.
But the Great White Way was quiet tonight, or at least this stretch of it was. The university had a
significant chunk of the street blocked off with a construction project up around 120th, and the city's

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The Green and the Gray


own orange-cone mania had similarly struck down at 103rd, sealing off most of the street there. The
cabbies, who had enough trouble just battling regular Manhattan traffic, had taken to avoiding these
particular twenty blocks entirely.
Of course, they could always walk over to Amsterdam and flag down something there. But