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

“Just because you came from a boring home doesn’t give you the
right to pass judgment on other people’s families. Okay? I mean, I
know your parents belonged to the right kind of religion and had
the right kind of jobs and never said anything unusual or anything
that would make you think, but that doesn’t mean that everyone’s
family is like that. Some of us wouldn’t want to be like that, okay?
So you can just keep your stupid opinions to yourself.”
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I didn’t mean—I was just joking around. I’m
sorry.”
Cassie turned away from me to talk to Aurora and Chris. Alan
looked at me sympathetically, but I refused to catch his eye.
The rest of the trip was a nightmare. To my surprise we made it
past the border guards with no problems. Sometime in the middle
of the night we reached the place Aurora had heard about with two
snakes we had picked up along the way. Aurora and Chris were
ecstatic, I didn’t know why. I’m afraid one snake looks like another
to me. Alan, rigid and wild-eyed, was starting to look like a speed
freak. We found one more snake, put it in a pillowcase, put the
pillowcases in the trunk and headed back. Then Aurora fell asleep
at the wheel.
The car swerved, bounced over a few rocks and stalled. Aurora
hadn’t woken up. “Aurora?” Cassie said, shaking her. “Aurora?”
“Hmm. Mf,” Aurora said.
We pulled her out and set her in Cassie’s seat. I was hoping she
didn’t have a concussion. Naturally no one in the car was wearing a
seat belt. Cassie drove a few more miles and then said, “God, I’m
sleepy,” and came to a dead stop in the middle of the one lane road.
“I’ll drive!” Alan said, a bright note of desperation in his voice.
Then he looked over Cassie’s shoulder and leaned back, but not too
far back. Ever since we put the snakes in the trunk his body hadn’t
made contact with the back of the seat. “Oh. Stick shift. I can’t do
it.”
“Look,” I said. “There was a big city just a few miles back. We’ll
find a hotel or a motel or something and get some sleep. All right?”
No one said anything. “Do you want me to drive?” I asked Cassie.
“Or can you handle it? It’s only a few more miles, I think.”
“Sure, I can do it,” Cassie said. She never stayed angry at
anything for long. This always confused me; I come from a long line
of grudge-holders.
The city was more than a few miles away, but we made it.
Aurora, wide awake now, cheerfully told us about a man who had
been bitten by a cobra and was immobilized just as he picked up the
phone and started to dial the hospital. In the street outside a seedy
one-story hotel we counted our money and discovered that between
us we had eleven dollars and ninety-two cents. Wearily I went
inside and found to my absolute amazement that they would take
my charge card. I motioned Alan inside. We had already decided
that the two men would rent the room and we would sneak the
three women in later. I wanted as little trouble as possible. As I
was stretching out on the floor, prepared to offer someone else the