"Jack Dann - Kaddish" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dann Jack)

anger and frustration, he says, "I told her I'd take the next bus, which I
could have taken, if she would have let me out of the house to catch it.
Now it's too late."
"Your mother said she'd take you to school."
"I don't want her taking me to school. I can't stand her."
"Well, I am taking you," Helen said, "and as a consequence for what
you said to me, you're grounded this weekend."
"I didn't say anything to you!"
"Nathan," she said, turning to him, "he's lying again. He told me to
fuck myself."
"I am not lying," Michael shouts. "And I didn't say 'fuck yourself,' I
said 'fuck it' because nobody can talk sense to you. All you can do is
scream and ground me every five minutes. I already bought tickets to
The Flack concert," he says to Nathan, "and I'm going, whether she
likes it or not. I've tried to be nice to her all week, but it's impossible."
Nathan wipes the soap from his face and, trying to remain calm, says,
"We've talked about using that kind of language to your mother. It's
got to stop...."
But there can be no quiet and rational resolve, for the family
dynamics inevitably overpower him.
The argument gains momentum.
Michael is swearing and crying in frustration. Helen finally grabs him
by his T-shirt and pushes him against the hallway wall. "I've got to
get to work, and you are coming with me. Damn you!"
Michael tries to pull away from her, but she won't let him go. He
pushes her, defensively, throwing her off balance.
Seeing that, Nathan shouts, "God damn you both," and rushes into the
hallway. Everything is out of control now; it is all visceral response.
He pushes Helen aside and slaps Michael hard on the side of his face.
Helen screams, "I've told you never to strike him."
But before Nathan can recover and bring himself to apologize, they
are out of the house.
By sunset the sky was the color of dull metal and filled with storm
clouds. Only in the west did the sun bleed through the gray as it
settled into the sea, which was pellucid and unnaturally clear. Sheet
lightning shot through the massive cloud countries as the temperature
dropped, and the humidity seemed to roll off the sea like mist, soon to
be rain.
Nathan's fever thoughts burned like his red, broken skin. There was
no food, no water to drink, just the slight smell of gasoline and the
salty tang of the sea. It became dark, and still Nathan sat and stared
into the transparent depths of the sea, as if he were looking for
something he had lost. Sometime during the agony of afternoon, he
had stopped thinking about rescue. That idea had become as distant as
a childhood dream.
Now, his mind raw from the sun, he watched and waited, and as
expected, something was swimming up from the depths. A vague
shape rose through veils of green darkness, followed by others. Fins
broke the surface of the water, and twenty-foot thresher sharks circled
the boat. Then other fish appeared just below the surface: marlin and