"Lisa Goldstein - Cassandra's Photographs" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goldstein Lisa)

illegal reptiles too. The book, The Field Guide to North American
Reptiles and Amphibians , had become Chris’s bible.
“No, it’s at home,” Aurora said. “But don’t worry. I know the ones
we want.”
On the other side of Chris sat Alan. Alan had said nothing for the
past ten miles. Later it turned out that he was deathly afraid of
snakes. But he was in love with Aurora, so what could he do? Poor
boy. I knew exactly how he felt.
We stopped just this side of the Mexican border for our last
hamburger and fries. It was 7:30. “We’re making good time,”
Aurora said when we sat down to eat. “We should be at this place I
know in a few hours. And we can spend the night driving up and
down, and be back by tomorrow afternoon.”
“What about sleep?” I said. Immediately I cursed myself.
Someone setting out on the grand adventure wouldn’t think of
sleep.
“Who needs sleep?” Cassie said. I thought she looked a little
disappointed in me.
“Certainly not you,” I said, trying to make a joke of the whole
thing. “Or the rest of your crazy family.”
“What makes you think we’re crazy?” Cassie said.
I thought she was being reasonable. That was my first mistake. I
looked across the table at her red hair and brown eyes, both tinted
with the same shade of gold, and I started to relax and enjoy the
trip for the first time. If I could be with her it didn’t matter where
we were going. Anyway her eccentricities were only part of her
charm. “Well, you know,” I said. “Your great-uncle,
what’s-his-name, the one who thinks he’s an Egyptian.”
“He doesn’t think he’s an Egyptian,” Cassie said. Alan was
watching us glumly. Chris drew pictures of snakes on her napkin.
“He’s an Osirian. The cult of Osiris. He explained it all to you when
you were over at the house.”
“He didn’t explain anything,” I said. “He asked me questions.
‘Knowest thou the name of this door, and canst thou tell it?’ And
then the lintel, and the doorpost, and the threshold—”
“You weren’t listening,” Cassie said. She still sounded reasonable.
“If you know all the names you can get past the door into the land
of the dead. And if you don’t you’re stuck. He’s got to keep all that
in his head. It’s a long list.”
“And you don’t think that’s a little strange,” I said. “That he
believes all this.”
“Well, what if he’s right?” Cassie said. “I mean, millions of people
used to believe in it. Maybe they knew something.”
“Well, what about your grandmother?” I said. “She stays in her
room for weeks on end and then she comes out and makes these
cryptic utterances—”
“Look, Robert,” Cassie said. Something passed between the two
sisters then, something I was too much of an outsider to
understand, and Aurora turned to Chris and started talking rapidly.
The gold seemed to leave Cassie’s eyes; they became flat, muddy.