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

The Other Children

We meet other children in the Little Town. As the school is closed, they are out all day long. There are big ones and little ones. Some have their homes and mothers here, others are from elsewhere, like us. Especially from the Big Town.

A lot of these children are living with people they didn't know before. They have to work in the fields and vineyards; the people who look after them are not always nice to them.

The big children often attack the smallest ones. They take all they have in their pockets, and sometimes even their clothes. They beat them up too, especially those who come from elsewhere. The young ones from here are protected by their mothers and never go out alone.

We are not protected by anybody, so we learn to defend ourselves against the big ones.

We make weapons: we sharpen stones, we fill socks with sand and gravel. We also have a razor, which we found in the chest in the attic, next to the Bible. We have only to take out our razor and the big boys run away.

One very hot day, we are sitting beside the fountain where people who have no well of their own come to get water. Nearby, some boys who are bigger than us are lying in the grass. It is cool here under the trees near the water, which runs without stopping.

Harelip arrives with a bucket that she places under the spout, which is discharging a thin trickle of water. She waits for her bucket to fill.

When the bucket is full, one of the boys gets up and goes over and spits in it. Harelip empties the bucket, rinses it, and puts it back under the spout.

When the bucket is full again, another boy gets up and spits in it. Harelip puts the rinsed bucket back under the spout. She doesn't wait for the bucket to fill, she fills it only halfway and quickly tries to escape.

One of the boys runs after her, catches her by the arm, and spits in the bucket.

Harelip says:

"Stop it, will you? I have to take clean drinking water back."

The boy says:

"But the water is clean. I just spat in it. Are you saying my spit is dirty? My spit is cleaner than anything in your house!"

Harelip empties her bucket and cries.

The boy opens his fly and says:

"Suck it! If you suck me off, we'll let you fill your bucket."

Harelip kneels down. The boy steps back:

"Do you think I'm going to put my cock into your disgusting mouth? Filthy slut!"

He kicks Harelip in the chest and does up his fly.

We go over. We pick Harelip up, take her bucket, rinse it well, and put it under the fountain spout.

One of the boys says to the other two:

"Come on, we have better things to do."

Another says:

"Are you crazy? This is when the fun starts."

The first one says:

"Drop it! I know them. They're dangerous."

"Dangerous? Those little cunts? I'll take care of them, you'll see."

He comes up to us and tries to spit in the bucket, but one of us trips him up, the other hits him on the head with a bag of sand. The boy falls down. He lies on the ground, stunned. The other two look at us. One of them takes a step toward us. The other says:

"Watch out! Those little bastards are capable of anything. Once they split my head open with a stone. They've got a razor too, and they don't hesitate to use it. They'd slit your throat as soon as look at you. They're completely crazy."

The boys leave.

We hand the filled bucket to Harelip. She asks us:

"Why didn't you help me right away?"

"We wanted to see how you defended yourself."

"What would I have been able to do against three big boys?"

"Throw your bucket at their heads, scratch their faces, kick them in the balls, shout and yell. Or run away and come back later."