"Andrews, V C - raven" - читать интересную книгу автора (Andrews V.C)

bloodshot. The truancy officer's phone call had
V. C. ANDREWS

jolted her out of a dead sleep. She brought the
bottle to her lips and sucked on it, the muscles in
her thin neck pulsating with the effort to get as
much down her throat as she could in one gulp.
Then she glared at me again. I saw she had a bruise
on the bottom of her right forearm and a scraped
elbow.
We were having one of those Indian summers.
The temperature had reached ninety today, and it
was nearly October twenty-first. Mama's hair, just
as black as mine, hung limply over her cheeks. Her
bangs were too long and uneven. She pushed her
lower lip out and blew up to sweep the strands out
of her eyes. Once, she had been a very pretty
woman with eyes that glittered like black pearls.
She had a richly dark complexion with distinct,
high cheekbones and perfect facial features. Women
shot silicone into their lips to get the shape and
fullness Mama's had naturally. I used to be flattered
when people compared me to her in those
days. All I ever dreamed of being was as pretty as
any mother.
Now, I pretended I wasn't even related to her.
Sometimes, I pretended she wasn't even there.
"How am I supposed to scratch out a living and
watch a twelve-year-old, too? They should be giving
me medals, not threats."
Mama's way of scratching out a living was working
as a barmaid at a dump called Charlie Boy's in
Newburgh, New York. Some nights, she didn't
come home until nearly four in the morning, long
after the bar had closed. If she wasn't drunk, she
RAVEN

was high on something and would go stumbling
around our one-bedroom apartment, knocking into
fcrniture and dropping things.
I slept on the pullout couch, so I usually woke up
©r heard her, but I always pretended I was still
asleep. I hated talking to her when she was in that
condition. Sometimes, I could smell her before i
heard her. It was as if she had soaked her clothing
in whiskey and beer.
Mama looked much older than her thirty-one
years now. She had dark shadows under her eyes
and wrinkles that looked like lines drawn with an
-eyebrow pencil at the corners. Her rich complexion