"Steven Gould - Jumper 02 - Reflex" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gould Stephen Jay)

TWO
"That's not his blood."



Davy jumped to an alley running behind Nineteenth Street Northwest, just east of George
Washington University. It was cool and the pavement was wet from recent rain, but it wasn't quite as
cold as New York had been and, for once, the alley didn't smell of urine. Water dripped from fire
escapes and telephone wires and he hunched his neck into his jacket as he turned toward the lighted
street.

Just short of the sidewalk, where the alley widened behind a store, a refrigerator carton lay
tucked against the wall, waterproofed by a layer of split plastic garbage bags. The ragged blanket that
served as a door curtain was half-open and Davy saw two sets of eyes reflecting the mercury
streetlamp. Children's eyes.

He paused. Did they see me arrive? The dim faces moved back into the shadow and vanished.

Sighing, Davy crouched down without moving any closer to the box. "Where're your parents,
guys?"

There was no response.

He pulled a small flashlight from his inside jacket pocket and twisted it on, pointing it down. The
two children flinched in the faint light. They were cleaner than he expected and the sleeping bag they
were sharing looked fairly new. The face in front was pure Mayan, bright dark eyes and shocks of
midnight hair. The second face was paler, with straw-colored hair, but the features were identical.
Girls, he guessed.

"¿Donde está su madre?" he tried.

Reluctantly, the eldest, perhaps eight—he couldn't really tell—said, "Está trabajando. Una
portera."

A janitor. Nightshift work that didn't require good English.
 "¿Y su padre?"

She just shook her head.

"¿De dónde es usted?" Where are you from?

"Chiapas."

Displaced. He thought about what their trip must've been like. They probably traveled on third
class buses up the length of Mexico, then in some horribly crowded van from someplace like Laredo
after crossing the border illegally.

The little girl, perhaps five or six, suddenly spoke, "Papa fue desaparecido."