"John Kessel - The Franchise" - читать интересную книгу автора (Kessel John)

The man hesitated. "Name's Weaver. I'm a—a fan. Yes, I'm a baseball
fan." He touched the brim of his hat and walked away.

George thought about it on the cab ride home. It did not make him feel
much better. When he got back to the cheap furnished apartment they
were renting, Barbara tried to console him.

"My father wasn't there, was he?" George said.

"No. But he called after the game. He wants to see you."

"Probably wants to give me a few tips on how to comport myself. Or
maybe just gloat."

Bar came around behind his chair, rubbed his tired shoulders. George
got up and switched on the television. While he waited for it to warm up,
the silence stretched. He faced Barbara. She had put on a few pounds over
the years, but he remembered the first time he'd seen her across the dance
floor in the red dress. He was seventeen. "What do you think he wants?"

"I don't know, George."

"I haven't seen him around in the last ten years. Have you?"

The TV had warmed up, and Prescott Bush's voice blared out from
behind George. "I hope the baseball Senators win," he was saying. "They've
had a better year than the Democratic ones."

George twisted down the volume, stared for a moment at his father's
handsome face, then snapped it off. "Give me a drink," he told Barbara.
He noticed the boys standing in the doorway, afraid. Barbara hesitated,
poured a scotch and water.

"And don't stint on the scotch!" George yelled. He turned to Neil. "What
are you looking at, you little weasel! Go to bed."
 Barbara slammed down the glass so hard the scotch splashed the
counter. "What's got into you, George? You're acting like a crazy man."

George took the half-empty glass from her hand. "My father's got into
me, that's what. He got into me thirty years ago, and I can't get him out."

Barbara shot him a look in which disgust outweighed pity and went
back to the boys' room. George slumped in the armchair and stared at the
sports page of the Post lying on the ottoman. CASTRO TO START SERIES,
the headline read.

Castro. What did he know about struggle? Yet the egomaniac lout was
considered a hero, while he, George Herbert Walker Bush, who at
twenty-four had been at the head of every list of the young men most likely
to succeed, had accomplished precisely nothing.