"Harvey Jacobs - The Retriever" - читать интересную книгу автора (Jacobs Harvey)

rested in her lap. Henry waited for his wife to fall into the trap he'd set,
then made a winning move, sweeping up six of her marbles. She swatted
at the board and dumped it on the carpet of their bedroom. The glass
marbles skittered to the farthest comers, rolling under the bed, two
bureaus, the armoire. "Sore loser," Henry said. "That kind of tantrum cost
you a perfectly good job."
"I don't care," Aurora said, tossing back her hair. "Anyway, you cheated
and I'm sick of checkers. Now I want to play cruise." She got up and rifled
through a pile of magazines until she found Travel & Leisure. "We must be
sailing to Paris."
"I don't think you can sail to Paris. You take a train. You take a bus.
You drive a car."
"Well we're sailing. You be Captain Henry. Make believe I'm a stowaway
you find hiding in a lifeboat. We go up on the top deck to play
shuffleboard."
"If I'm the captain I'm not playing shuffleboard with a stowaway,"
Henry said. "I'm on the bridge holding the wheel."
"No you're not. You're not," Aurora yelled.
"All right. I'm on deck playing shuffleboard."
"Look, there's a giant wave coming toward us," Aurora said. "Over
there. The whole ship might turn over. We might end up on a deserted
island. Maybe cannibals live there."
"How can cannibals live on a deserted island?"
"They just do. You'd better blow the boat whistle before that wave hits."
"Blahhh," Henry said. "Blahhh."
"Look at the dolphins jumping," Aurora said. "They're pushing us away
from hungry sharks." The doorman rang up before Henry could look at the
sharks and dolphins. He went to the intercom.
"Send him up," Henry said.
 "Who is it?" Aurora asked, pouting.
"The one you told me about. Your marvelous Uncle Joey."
"You hear that, Kermit? Uncle Joey came to see us," Aurora said. She
smoothed her dress and rushed to the door. Henry picked up the Chinese
Checker board and bagged a few of the scattered marbles. He heard Joe
Luna's voice say, "How's my princess?"
When Henry came into the living room he saw Luna fumbling in his
coat pocket while Aurora jumped up and down in anticipation. "You must
be Henry," Luna said. "A pleasure to finally meet you. So, how goes it?"
"Just great," Henry said. "My wife's gotten to be something of a pain in
the ass. I had to buy her all new toys. Not to mention clothes and shoes."
"But she's a doll," Luna said. "You got to admit, she's adorable."
"True," Henry said. "I suppose she is. What did you find this time? How
much is this going to cost us?"
"Discuss that with my secretary," Luna said. He handed Aurora a
cellophane bag.
"What's in it?" she said.
"Open and see, honeybunch."
Aurora crinkled the cellophane wrap. "Rip open the damn thing," her
husband said. She undid the crinkling folds, purposely complicating the
unveiling.