"Lynn,.Elizabeth.-.Silver.Horse" - читать интересную книгу автора (Lynn Elizabeth A)

Susannah rubbed her cheek on her mother's leg. "Am I a Virgo kid?" she asked.
Her mother stroked her hair. "You're a Gemini. Niall, too. That's why you fight all the time."
Susannah pressed her lips together. She didn't want to tell her mother about her vow. Not yet.
"Hey," her mother said, "What's the matter?"
"Nothing," Susannah said. "I was thinking about astrology."
Her mother looked at her with an odd expression. Then she turned to glance through into the front hall. "Niall's being too quiet. You know where he is?"
Oh, who cares, Susannah thought. "He's playing with his horse."
"The new one? Good. Maybe he'll stay quiet for a while."
Hah, Susannah thought. Bet he won't.
Suddenly her mother put her hand on her belly. "_Woo._"
"What?" Susannah said.
"The baby kicked!" Her mother beckoned. "Come up next to me." Susannah moved up to sit beside her mother. "Feel."
Susannah stretched out her hand. Her mother took it and guided it to a place on her belly. Susannah felt a sharp quiver against her palm.
"Feel that?"
"Uh huh." Susannah swallowed. "Does it hurt?"
"Nope."
"What does it feel like?"
Her mother laughed. "It feels like a burp."
"Oh." Suddenly Susannah felt it again. Like a baby chicken, she thought, pecking at a shell. That made her feel strange. Jerking her hand away, she rubbed it on her knee.
Her mother touched her cheek softly. "Hey, Susie-pooh," she said. "You know, there's a live person in there. Toes and ears and a heart and everything, almost ready to come out."
"I know that," Susannah said, annoyed. She had seen pictures and knew what babies looked like before they were born.
"Which would you prefer," her mother said, "a boy or a girl?"
I don't want it at all, Susannah thought. But she couldn't say that.
Babies were babies: they cried and were wet all the time. There was a baby on the street already: Juanito, Danielle's brother. She wondered if a little sister would be as much hassle as a brother. "I don't care."
"Mmm," said her mother. She stretched her arms above her head. "Are we out of milk?"
Susannah tried to picture the inside of the refrigerator as she had seen it last. "I don't remember."
"Would you look?"
"Okay." She went in. The house seemed very dark. The kitchen tile was cool on her bare feet. She opened the refrigerator.
There were usually two big gallon containers of milk on the middle shelf. There was one there now. She reached in and took it out. It was very light.
"Merow," said a voice near the ground. Something warm and soft and furry brushed her left leg.
"Hello, Mr. D," she said.
The big square orange cat butted his head on her knee. "Mowr," he said.
"I know what you want." Susannah took his water bowl from its place and put it on the kitchen table. Then she poured the rest of the milk -- it was only a tiny bit -- into the bowl. "Come on," she whispered.
Mr. D jumped to the table top. Purring, he folded himself up beside the bowl and drank. Susannah put the empty container in the pantry and went out. "There was a little left," she said. "I gave it to Mr. D."
"Dad can get more tomorrow. But we'll need some tonight. Would you go to the store and get a quart?" Mother dug into her pocket and brought out a dollar. "Bring me the change."
"All right," Susannah said. Putting the dollar into her own pocket, she started down the steps.
"Put something on your feet!"
Her thongs were in the front hall. Wriggling her toes into them, Susannah went down the steps. Her mother waved from the top.
* * * *
Susannah loved her street. It was named Allan Street and it was only one block long. There were lots of streets like it in San Francisco. Her father -- he was a city bus driver, and knew all about the streets -- had showed her on the city map: there was Carl Street and Paul Street and Jessie Street and Edna Street. There was no street named Susannah. But there was no street named Niall, either!
Allan Street's tall wooden houses had curly decorations and designs all over them. Some of the houses were painted neat colors: blue and bright yellow and gold. Some even had stained glass windows! At the bottom of the street sat a little store, a park, and a streetcar line beside the park. Susannah loved to watch the red and yellow streetcar stop at the bottom of the hill before the tunnel. It would sit humming as people got off and on, and then it would close its doors -- thunk, thunk! -- and come rattling and shaking up the slope. At night she would hear it between dreams, like the soft snore of the cat, and it made her feel good.
At the entrance to the store Susannah stopped, hoping to see a streetcar heading for the tunnel, but none appeared. She went into the store. The cooler was in the back. She took a quart of milk from it and brought it to Al at the counter.
"How ya doing?" said Al, punching the buttons on his machine.
"All right," Susannah said, giving him her dollar. She watched him count out coins. She had heard Celie say that Al was an Arab and it made her curious -- when he got home, did he take off his shirt and put on a headdress and a long white robe?
"Need a bag?" he asked. He always asked Mother that, and she always answered, "Nope. Save a tree."
Susannah shook her head. Al leaned over the counter to give her the change. As she stuck it in her pocket she wished that she could spend it to buy beef jerky. She loved the salty taste, and it was neat to tear at the tough flat strip with her teeth and pretend to be an Indian or a pioneer.
As she left the store, the label on a bottle caught her eye. A white horse. It made her think of Niall. Stupid brat. She kicked at a tuft of grass.
"Susannah!"
Susannah looked up. "Hi!" she said. And grinned.
"Hi," said Danielle.