"Джон Чивер. The swimmer (Пловец, англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

fifteen minutes he was able to cross. From here he had only a short walk to
the Recreation Center at the edge of the Village of Lancaster, where there
were some handball courts and a public pool.
The effect of the water on voices, the illusion of brilliance and suspense,
was the same here "as it had been at the Bunkers' but the sounds here were
louder, harsher, and more shrill, and as soon as he entered the crowded
enclosure he was confronted with regimentation. "ALL SWIM- MERS MUST TAKE A
SHOWER BEFORE USING THE POOL. ALL SWIMMERS MUST USE THE FOOTBATH. ALL
SWIMMERS MUST WEAR THEIR IDENTIFICATION DISKS." He took a shower, washed his
feet in a cloudy and bitter solution and made his way to the edge of the
water. It stank of chlorine and looked to him like a sink. A pair of life-
guards in a pair of towers blew police whistles at what seemed to be regular
intervals and abused the swimmers through a public address system. Neddy
remembered the sapphire water at the Bunkers' with longing and thought that
he might contaminate himself-damage his own prosper- ousness and charm-by
swimming in this murk, but he reminded himself that he was an explorer, a
pilgrim, and that this was merely a stagnant bend in the Lucinda River. He
dove, scowling with distaste, into the chlorine and had to swim with his
head above water to avoid collisions, but even so he was bumped into,
splashed and jostled. When he got to the shallow end both life- guards were
shouting at him: "Hey, you, you without the identification disk, get outa*
the water." He did, but they had no way of pursuing him and he went through
the reek of suntan oil and chlorine out through the hurricane fence* and
passed the handball courts. By crossing the road he entered the wooded part
of the Halloran estate. The words were not cleared and the foot- ing was
treacherous and difficult until he reached the lawn and the clipped beech
hedge that en- circled their pool.
The Hallorans were friends, an elderly couple of enormous wealth who seemed
to bask in the suspicion that they might be Communists. They were zealous
reformers but they were not Com- munists, and yet when they were accused, as
they sometimes were, of subversion, it seemed to grati- fy and excite them.
Their beech hedge was yellow and he guessed this had been blighted like the
Levys' maple. He called hullo, hullo, to warn the Hallorans of his approach,
to palliate his invasion of their privacy. The Hallorans, for reasons that
had never been explained to him, did not wear bathing suits. No explanations
were in order, really. Their nakedness was a detail in their uncompromising
zeal for reform and he stepped politely out of his trunks before he went
through the opening in the hedge.
Mrs. Halloran, a stout woman with white hair and a serene face, was reading
the Times* Mrs. Halloran was taking beech leaves out of the water with a
scoop. They seemed not surprised or displeased to see him. Their pool was
perhaps the oldest in the county, a fieldstone rectangle,* fed by a brook.
It had no filter or pump and its i; waters were the opaque gold of the
stream.
I "I'm swimming across the county," New said. I "Why, I didn't know one
could," exclaimed 1 Mrs. Halloran.
"Well, I've made it from the Westerhazys'," Ned said. "That must be about
four miles."
He left his trunks at the deep end, walked to the shallow end, and swam this
stretch. As he was pulling himself out of the water he heard Mrs. Halloran