"Nina Kiriki Hoffman - Objects of Desire" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hoffman Nina Kiriki)

with water and baby shampoo. He said...he said she'll teach you what she needs." She reached under the
table and brought up a small sack of cat litter and a high-sided plastic tray. "For starters," she said.
"Thanks!"
Vespa rubbed her head against the side of my head. Her fur was exquisitely soft. She smelled so
good. Lemon, stick incense, fresh bread.
There wasn't much left of dinner, it had all been so good. I pressed cake crumbs together and held
them up in my hand. Vespa reached out, grabbed a handful, and sniffed them, then ate them. She
chirped.
"You can keep the carry-cage," Grandma said.
"Thank you, Grandma. It's a terrific present. Thank you." I glanced at Mom. "I'll get more
babysitting jobs. I'll make enough money to feed her," I said. "She's so little, I bet it won't take much."
Mom's frown softened. "Oh, Kirby, it's not that."
Whatever it was, I didn't want to hear about it now. I just wanted to be happy for a little while.
"Thanks, everybody, for the best presents and a great meal," I said.
I didn't even have to rack the dishes that night. I took my new things up to my room.
I only thought for a little while about the mountain of presents I had gotten last year when we could
afford a big party, when Mom had loved getting me anything I wanted. A lot of those presents were
broken and gone now, and a few I had sold so I could get some honto rad school clothes this year
instead of the basics that Mom could afford.
I still had my lightning-bolt shoes from last year. Nobody in my class except me wore them
anymore, but I still liked them, even though the batteries in the bolts were almost dead and the lightning
only flickered when it rained.
It had been kind of weird not following everybody else from one trend to the next since Mom's
downgrade. I watched how much I wanted something when all the other kids got it, and I watched how
much I didn't want it two or three weeks later when they had moved on to something else. I felt like I
was getting this figured out.
Until I got total skewlis envy, no matter how hard I tried to pretend I thought they were creepy and
weird.
But so what? Grandma had done it! She'd managed to get a skewlis for me, who knew how! I
didn't have to fight my longing anymore.
I glanced at Vespa. Her furry cheek was close to mine. She scanned my bedroom with fire-orange
eyes. Warmth spread through me.
What if everybody had already moved on from skewlis to something else? What if, when I got to
school tomorrow morning, I was the only one with a skewlis?
 Vespa turned and stared into my eyes. I remembered how much I had wanted a skewlis, even
though I knew there was no way. This time I didn't want my wanting to fade. I had Vespa. I needed to
keep on wanting her, for both our sakes.
She reached out a tiny black hand and patted my cheek. Her fingers were warm. She grasped my
earlobe, stared at it, and muttered small sounds more like bird-chirps than purrs. My throat tightened for
a moment. I felt amazingly happy.
I filled a cup with water in the bathroom and showed it to Vespa. She jumped down off my shoulder
and drank three cups full. I also set up the litter box and showed it to her. She stared at it for a long
moment, then looked at me sideways. I wasn't sure what to think. What if she had never used a litter box
before? Was she even housebroken?
Oh well, deal with that tomorrow, if I had to.
Vespa jumped up onto my right arm. I patted my left shoulder, and after a moment she crept across
my shoulders and locked onto my left arm. I cleaned my teeth and washed my face right-handed, with
her still clinging to me. I won-dered how we would sleep, or how I'd even change into the mega T-shirt I
slept in.
But she responded when I patted the bed: jumped down off my arm and curled up, watching me