"Kathleen Ann Goonan - The Bride of Elvis" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goose Mother)

Roy took her hand, as if he knew what she was thinking. They got close to the doublewide and heard the drone of
the TV.
"Good," he said, and she felt his relief run up her spine and spread out through her body like a cool breeze. "I guess
she's OK. I shouldn't have left her alone all night; you just never know."
He knocked, then opened the door. "Ma," he said, "how you doing? I brought somebody I want you to meet.
Darlene, this is Zinnea, my mother."
He stopped so suddenly that Darlene ran right into the back of him. "What's wrong?" Roy asked his mother.
Darlene looked around and saw an old lady dressed in a faded print dress. She was crying. "Look," she said.
Darlene looked, and her mouth fell open. There it was, right on the Cable News Network: Graceland, from the air.
About a million people were there, under the helicopter's whup whup whup, as the reporter said, "It's unbelievable,
just unbelievable."
"What happened?" Darlene asked, but she didn't really have to. Of course it was on national news.
The old woman had a pale, sweet face. Darlene knew she used to be fat and full of piss and vinegar. She knew lots
of things. She knew Roy's mother was seventy-one, and had arthritis, adult-onset diabetes, and plaque in her left
anterior descending coronary artery. Not to mention pulmonary lesions.
"If it don't beat all," Zinnea said. "I mean, that I've lived to see the day. Elvis is gone. Simply gone from his tomb,
you know. Just look at that crowd."
"Darlene here is one of the--" but Darlene kicked him sharp behind his knee and he shut up. She'd been a fool to tell
him a thing. She was just a pure and entire fool anyway. She'd really have to play things down if she wanted to stay
around here.
Roy touched her arm, and that something flooded through her. Maybe she wasn't entirely a fool. It all made sense
when he touched her, anyway.
Darlene sat down on the worn green couch next to Zinnea and took her hand. "You kinda liked Elvis, huh?"
"Oh, I cut my teeth on that man," she said, and she wheezed as she spoke. "Why, you know, I even saw him once,
it was at the County Fair back in the '50s when he was just getting started. Roy's father had a hissy fit about it; said I
shouldn't be so interested in how the hips of any other man moved. But there was a lot of goodness in him."
"There was," said Darlene. And some mighty strange DNA too, lady.
Still holding the old lady's hand in both of hers, she looked into her frail face. She could feel Roy sitting on her other
side, knew his eyes were glued to the TV.
Darlene didn't do this much because, frankly, she didn't often care enough to do it.
But it was just a matter of restoring a balance, and then removing that plaque from the left ventricle. Darlene healed
her, then let go of her hand.
Zinnea looked at her with an open, innocent look, as if she were a kiddie herself, just born. Her cheeks grew pink.
She leaned back against the couch, coughed once, then breathed deeply with wonder on her face. She squinted at
Darlene. "I do feel good, all of a sudden." She stood up. "Real good. I must have forgot my manners. Let me get you
some ice tea. Lemon or sugar, honey?"
"Both," said Darlene, and wondered if maybe Zinnea had a few pies stored away that she could polish off as a little
snack.
"It will take me a few minutes," Zinnea said. "None of that instant stuff around here." She went around a paneled
partition.
"There seems to be something white coming down from the sky," said the commentator, his voice choked with fear.
Darlene jumped up and stared at the television. "Of course," she said. "Of course."
They'd finally got the drive working again. Took them long enough. Only about sixty years. Naturally they'd take
the King first -- they had to hook Him in. They'd taken no chances with Him. Why tell the Brides? Those Techs always
treated Brides like dirt and were so smug about their jobs and always saying nothing could go on without them. They
must have just planned to wake the Brides up when everything was ready, to keep them from getting underfoot. She
thought of her kiddies, suddenly, her beautiful, fast-growing full-lined kiddies. They must be here, along with her
mother. There were no men, of course, in that heaving, thronging crowd.
"I have to get back to Memphis, Roy," she said.
"No," he whispered, and she felt his pain. He jumped up and his arms went around her, held her tight. "I won't let