"The Book of Lies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kristof Agota)

Exercise in Fasting

We announce to Grandmother:

"Today and tomorrow we won't eat. We'll only drink water."

She shrugs her shoulders:

"I couldn't care less. But you'll work as usual."

"Of course, Grandmother."

The first day, she kills a chicken and roasts it in the oven. At midday, she calls us:

"Come and eat!"

We go to the kitchen, it smells very good. We're a bit hungry, but not too much. We watch Grandmother carve up the chicken.

She says:

"It smells good. Can you smell how good it smells? Do you want a leg each?"

"We don't want anything, Grandmother."

"That's a pity, because it's really very good."

She eats with her hands, licking her fingers and wiping them on her apron. She gnaws and sucks the bones.

She says:

"Very tender, this young chicken. I can't imagine anything betteï."

We say:

"Grandmother, since we've been in your house, you have never cooked a chicken for us."

She says:

"I've cooked one today. Now's your chance."

"You knew we didn't want anything to eat today or tomorrow."

"That's not my fault. This is just more of your damn nonsense."

"It's one of our exercises. To get us used to bearing hunger."

"Then get used to it. Nobody's stopping you."

We leave the kitchen and go out to do our chores in the garden. By the end of the day, we are really very hungry. We drink a lot of water. In the evening, we find it hard to get to sleep. We dream of food.

Next day, at midday, Grandmother finishes the chicken. We watch her eating it in a kind of fog. We're no longer hungry. We feel dizzy.

In the evening, Grandmother makes pancakes with jam and cream cheese. We feel sick and have stomach cramps, but as soon as we go to bed, we fall into a deep sleep. When we get up, Grandmother has already left for the market. We want to have our breakfast, but there is nothing to eat in the kitchen. No bread, no milk, no cheese. Grandmother has locked everything away in the cellar. We could open it, but we decide not to touch anything. We eat raw tomatoes and cucumbers with salt.

Grandmother comes back from the market and says: "You haven't done your work this morning." "You should have woken us up, Grandmother." "You should have woken yourselves up. But just this once, I'll give you something to eat all the same."

She makes us a vegetable soup with what she brings back from the market, as usual. We don't eat much. After the meal, Grandmother says:

"It's a stupid exercise. And bad for the health."