"Richard Brautigan - in_watermelon_sugar" - читать интересную книгу автора (Brautigan Richard)

"They brought the tiger to ideath and everybody came with
them. They covered it with wood and soaked the wood down
with watermelontrout oil. Gallons and gallons of it. I remember
people threw flowers on the pile and stood around crying because
it was the last tiger.
"Charley took a match and lit the fire. It burned with a great

31

orange glow for hours and hours, and black smoke poured up
into the air.
"It burned until there was nothing left but ashes, and then
the men began right then and there building the trout hatchery
at ideath, right over the spot where the tiger had been burned.
It's hard to think of that now when you're down there dancing.
"I guess you remember all this," Pauline said. "You were
there, too. You were standing beside Charley."
"That's right," I said. "They had beautiful voices."
"I never heard them" she said.
"Perhaps that was for the best," I said.
"Maybe you're right," she said. "Tigers," and was soon fast
asleep in my arms. Her sleep tried to become my arm, and then
my body, but I wouldn't let it because I was suddenly very
restless.
I got up and put on my overalls and went for one of the long
walks I take at night.

32

Arithmetic

the night was cool and the stars were red. I walked down by
the Watermelon Works. That's where we process the watermelons
into sugar. We take the juice from the watermelons and
cook it down until there's nothing left but sugar, and then we
work it into the shape of this thing that we have: our lives.
I sat down on a couch by the river. Pauline had gotten me
thinking about the tigers. I sat there and thought about them,
how they killed and ate my parents.
We lived together in a shack by the river. My father raised
watermelons and my mother baked bread. I was going to school.
I was nine years old and having trouble with arithmetic.
One morning the tigers came in while we were eating breakfast
and before my father could grab a weapon they killed him
and they killed my mother. My parents didn't even have time
to say anything before they were dead. I was still holding the
spoon from the mush I was eating.
"Don't be afraid," one of the tigers said. "We're not going to
hurt you. We don't hurt children, just sit there where you are
and we'll tell you a story."