"Replica20 - Like Father, Like Son - Kaye, Marilyn" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kaye Marilyn)

Again Chris gave a noncommittal shrug. "Yeah, I guess. They ask if I slept well, if I had a good day at school, stuff like that. They don't bug me or ask me where I'm going every time I leave the house. Which is fine with me."

Amy could understand that. Chris was the independent type. His father had abandoned the family when Chris was just a baby, and twelve years later his mother had disappeared. Chris had been on his own for three years.

Tasha returned from the kitchen just as TRL came back on the screen. Carson Daly was announcing a brand-new video by Big Boy Band.

"Tasha, did you hear that?" Amy asked. "Big Boy Band has a new video."

Tasha sniffed. "Who cares?" She opened the latest issue of Teen People and began to read.

Chris was puzzled by Tasha's reaction. "Isn't that your favorite group?"

"Was," Tasha said. "Past tense."

Amy explained to Chris. "Pace Coverdell left the band."

"Who?"

Tasha frowned. "You won't be saying that in a month," she predicted. "Pace's first solo album is coming out, and he's going to be big."

"Tasha is Pace Coverdell's biggest fan," Amy told Chris. "She's making a scrapbook about him."

"And for him," Tasha added. As evidence, she pulled a large red spiral-bound album from her backpack. "When he performs here in L.A., I'm going to get backstage and present it to him."

The front door opened and a voice rang out. "I'm home!"

"Hi, Mom, we're in here," Amy called back.

Nancy Candler entered the living room and sank down in an easy chair. "Hi, guys."

"Hello, Mrs. Candler," Chris and Tasha chorused.

"How was your day, Mom?" Amy asked.

"Exhausting. I taught three classes in a row and I had two faculty meetings." Nancy looked at her watch. "It's time for the news. Amy, could you put on Channel Two?"

Amy obeyed, but with reluctance. She didn't much like watching the local news. It was always so depressing. Sometimes it seemed there was nothing nice to report on in Los Angeles.

Tonight's news was the usual stuff. A big fire — people had died, others had been left homeless. A gang war. A drunk-driving accident involving two students from the university where Nancy Candler taught. One had been killed, the other severely injured.

"Did you know them, Mom?" Amy asked.

But her mother couldn't answer that. The names of the students were being withheld until their families had been notified.

More bad news — a bomb threat at the airport and a major bank robbery. Finally, after a commercial, the newscaster began reporting more upbeat stories. "In Hollywood last night, the film community honored six of its own for contributions to the movie industry. Stars emerged from retirement to accept the accolades of their peers in a ceremony designed to honor those whose careers were brief but significant."

One was an actor who had won big awards three years in a row and then had stopped making movies to devote himself to working for the environment. A director had quit the business to spend more time with his children after his wife died. Amy had never heard of any of these people, but her mother recognized some of them.

"Oh, my, there's Rita Ritchie," she commented. "I loved her in The Magnificent Madeline, In fact, it was on TV last night and I taped it."