"Kit Reed - Family Bed" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Kit)

Family Bed

by Kit Reed

—We have to go!

Like a mouse with the cat crouched outside waiting, my sister burrows deeper. There is cocoa on her
breath. —Why, when it's so nice?

—I mean it, Beth. I jab her fat flank. We are too old to be in here. Frankly, there are crumbs.

—Niiice. Bethany, who Mother named after something I don't know about, drops into sleep like a stone
into a pond.

Oh, sure it's nice in here. Too nice. Soft and warm and seductive. —Mom, other kids don't go to bed at
…

—Shh, Sarah. Can a person thunder in a whisper? Mother can. —We're the Dermotts. This is who we
are.

The six of us are, like, trapped inside an idea she had. We used to be seven, but Darryl went out one
night and that's all I know. Father says Darryl is fighting for our country in Lebanon.

—Sarah? My one remaining brother mutters, —Cover for me, dude.

My heart lurches. —Bill, you're not …

He claps his hand over my mouth.

The word comes out in a little puff anyway, —leaving.

But he is. Bill bundles pillows into a guy-shaped heap as Mother shuts the book and turns off the light
with that hateful snap, like she is shutting the lid on us. During the ritual night-nights, he slithers out like a
ferret; outside a car waits— five cute guys giggling and whispering; they are heading for the mall. I grab
his hand. —Don't go.

—Children! Mom's hiss breaks the connection between us. Am I the only one who hears him snaking
across the rug? Outside the car starts up and my heart goes after it. There are kids at the mall, cute guys
and loud music. I poke Bethany. —We can't go on like this.

But we do. You see us on TV, you see us in the magazines, the happy Dermotts, smiling, smiling, smiling,
and you think, how wonderful: sweet family, together here in the dark, what closer bond?

Well, listen.

Here in the dark.

Get it?
Lights out after bedtime cocoa, that means, whether or not you are sleepy. No music at bedtime, no
I-Pod, no whispering; no squirming and no humming please, you know it gets on my nerves. No