"Theodora Goss - Pip and the Fairies" - читать интересную книгу автора (Goss Theodora)

Her mother never actually called her Pip. It was Pipsqueak, as in, "Go play
outside, Pipsqueak. Can't you see Mommy's trying to finish this chapter?
Mommy's publisher wants to see something by Friday, and we're a month
behind on the rent." When they finally moved away from Payton, they were
almost a year behind. Her mother sent Mrs. Payne a check from California, from
royalties she had received for the after-school special.


Philippa buys a scone and a cup of coffee. There was no café when she used to
come to this bookstore, while her mother shopped at the food co-op down the
street, which is now a yoga studio. Mrs. Archer used to let her sit in a corner and
read the books. Then she realizes there is no cup holder in the rental car. She
drinks the coffee quickly. She's tired, after the long flight from Los Angeles, the
long drive from Boston. But not much farther now. Payton has stayed essentially
the same, she thinks, despite the yoga studio. She imagines a planning board, a
historical society, the long and difficult process of obtaining permits, like in all
these New England towns.


As she passes the fire station, the rain begins, not heavy, and intermittent. She
turns on the windshield wipers.


There is Sutton's dairy, where her mother bought milk with cream floating on
top, before anyone else cared about pesticides in the food chain. She is driving
through the country, through farms that have managed to hold on despite the
rocky soil. In the distance she sees cows, and once a herd of alpacas. There are
patches too rocky for farms, where the road runs between cliffs covered with
ivy, and birches, their leaves glistening with rain, spring up from the shallow soil.


Then forest. The rain is heavier, pattering on the leaves overhead. She drives
with one hand, holding the scone in the other (her pants are getting covered
with crumbs), beneath the oaks and evergreens, thinking about the funeral.
It was not large: her mother's co-workers from the Children's Network, and
Anne. It was only after the documentary that people began driving to the
cemetery in the hills, leaving hyacinths by the grave. Her fault, she supposes.


The interviewer leaned forward, as though expecting an intimate detail. "How did
she come up with Hyacinth? Was the character based on anyone she knew?"


"Oh, hyacinths were my mother's favorite flower."


And letters, even contributions to the Susan Lawson Cancer Research Fund.
Everyone, it seems, had read Pip and the Fairies. Then the books had gone out