"Joe Haldeman - Guardian" - читать интересную книгу автора (Haldeman Joe)

there would be police looking for us high and low.
I heard him splashing and he came out dripping wet, a towel around his waist.
"What gold?"
"It's left over from my father's bequest, over a hundred twenty-dollar gold pieces.
I've never told your father about it." I didn't tell him about the bird's warning. There was
enough sudden strangeness in his world.
He nodded with a strangely adult, calculating look. "We could go anyplace with
two thousand dollars."
"We'll leave right after he goes to the office tomorrow," I said. "Take the first
train to New York City. Then on to someplace where nobody will know us."
"Can I choose?" he asked, and I said of course, but think it over. It would have to
be someplace that didn't cost a fortune to get to, where I could get a job, where we
wouldn't stand out. Not the Belgian Congo or Antarctica. That made him gay. I told him
which trunk to fill, and he went off to sort through his things.
I had to wait by the cookies; the woodstove was unpredictable, and I had to go by
the smell of the baking. I started packing in my head, though. Books: only ones that
couldn't be replaced by mail order, because of long attachment. In poetry, Palgrave's
Golden Treasury and Shakespeare's Sonnets. The Treasure Island and Huckleberry Finn
I had read to Daniel. Perhaps I might have another child someday.
I would need sturdy, plain clothes and one of my two velvet dresses, for church
and interviews; a chemise for sleeping. A dark Gibson Girl outfit for classroom or office,
wherever I'd be working, perhaps two of them. I thought with longing of the huge
Satatoga, that held all the clothes I could need for weeks in Boston or New York. But I
wanted no more than a porter could easily carry; small enough for me to handle alone, if
need be.
My drawing equipment and watercolors, leaving behind the oils and their so-
called portable easel. My diaries and two or three sketchbooks, the most recent. I hated to
leave the others behind; it literally was leaving a part of my self behind. But they were
too bulky.
I would fill new ones. The prospect of having a new world to draw and paint gave
me a sudden lift in spirits.
If I had known how literally true that would be!
Daniel came down carrying the atlas. He opened it to Kansas and pointed to
Dodge City.
Well, why not? It was the ends of the earth, but that was what I wanted. If I
couldn't get a job there—teaching or rounding up cattle, or whatever single women did
there who didn't want to be "soiled doves"—we could move to Kansas City or St. Louis.
I warned him not to be too disappointed if there weren't a lot of gunfights and
cowboys. He said sure; he knew that was all dime novel stuff, but his eyes glittered with
excitement. I hoped he wouldn't be too let down by the reality.
He filled the large teakettle with water and hoisted it up on the stove while I took
out the cookies and arranged them on plates to cool. Ginger, vanilla, and chocolate
smells, mingling for the last time. I wrapped a few warm ones for Daniel, and sent him
out to the library while I entertained the church ladies.
He asked whether he could check out books, or would that be stealing?—trying to
pull an innocent face that made us both laugh. I told him I wasn't ready to begin a life of
crime.
As I watched him scamper out, though, I realized that it might be just that. Taking
the son of a wealthy Philadelphia lawyer might be kidnapping, even if you were the son's
mother. But I put that out of my mind. Edward would never have us pursued, knowing