Edenville Owls
- Автор: Паркер Роберт Браун
- Год: 2007
- Язык: английский
- Год: Sleuth Philomel
- ISBN: 978-0-399-24656-2
- Жанр: Современная русская и зарубежная проза
Электронная книга - «Edenville Owls». Краткое содержание книги:
I usually had on gabardine slacks and a brown plaid jacket, and either a maroon or a green rayon shirt, with the collar open and spread out over the neck and lapels of the jacket. Most of the guys wore the same kind of stuff. Some kids wore sweaters instead of suit coats.
We were also supposed to learn manners from Miss Miller. She was always saying “Young gentlemen” this, and “Young ladies” that, and acted as if we would want to be young gentlemen and ladies. Most of the guys, I knew, were not much interested in being young gentlemen. Most of us were interested in sex. We didn’t think that girls were; we thought they were interested in being young ladies. But we might have been wrong.
The problem with being so interested in sex was that we didn’t really know how to express the interest, or what to do about it. Most of us knew the facts of life in a technical sense. We just lacked what you might call hands-on experience. So we made jokes, and talked sort of dirty, and danced as close as we could. And then retreated to our side of the room and huddled among our gender mates.
The Grange Hall had a bad heating system, so it was always too hot or too cold in there. And the real issues of sex and uncertainty that made the air in the Grange Hall thick with intensity was far beneath Miss Miller’s plane of vision. She played her piano and counted for us and talked about “young gentlemen” and “young ladies.” If Miss Miller had ever thought about sex, she seemed to have stopped a long time ago.
Dancing with Joanie was, of course, the most pressure. Neither of us could dance, and as we bumped around the barnlike room, we giggled a lot. But I also smelled her shampoo, and felt the hard pointy bra against my chest, and felt her thighs move. I almost closed my eyes in the effort not to think impure things about her. I didn’t want to have to tell Father Al I’d had impure thoughts about Joanie Gibson... I didn’t want to have them, she was too important to think about like that... I forced any bad feelings back down into the bottom of my soul... Sometimes I said several silent Hail Marys to distract me. They worked. Or it worked. Or something worked. I didn’t have impure thoughts about Joanie, but the effort of not having them was so powerful that sometimes it was difficult for me to talk.
Chapter 36
It was about half past three in the afternoon. School was over for the day. Joanie and I were squeezed into the phone booth outside Romeo’s Package Store next to the Village Shop.
“All my uncle John could think of,” Joanie said, “was the Veteran’s Administration.”
The copy of the Medal of Honor list that Old Lady Coughlin got for Joanie said that Oswald Tupper was in the 1st Infantry Division, 26th Infantry Regiment, 3rd Battalion, Company L. Joanie had it written on a piece of paper along with the number for the VA. She dialed the number.
“Hi,” she said. “I’m trying to locate my brother.”
She held the phone away from her ear a little and I pressed my head against hers to listen.
“He is a veteran of what service?” the VA woman said.
“Excuse me?”
“Army? Navy? What service?” the VA woman said.
There was the kind of impatience in her voice that kids always hear from grown-ups.
“Army,” Joanie said.
“And he’s missing?”
“Yes, ma’am. He went to war and now it’s over and we haven’t heard from him and my mom’s awful sick...” Joanie said.
“I’ll transfer you,” the VA lady said.
We waited. Another lady picked up. Joanie told her story again. We got transferred again. Finally we got a guy. He sounded like a young guy.
“...and I don’t know how much time my mom has left,” Joanie said.
She sounded ready to cry.
“I understand,” the young man said. “What is your name?”
“Janie Krauss.”
“And your brother’s name?”
“Richard. Richard Krauss.”
“Do you have any kind of address for him?” the young man asked.
“I don’t know. I have an address, but I’m not sure it’s his,” Joanie said.
“Let’s try it,” the young man said.
Joanie gave him Oswald Tupper’s military address.
“The Big Red One,” the young man said. “That would be European Theater.”
“Can you look and see?” Joanie said.
“Hang on,” the young man said.
It was cold outside, with a lot of wind. But in the small telephone booth, with the door closed, the two of us were perfectly warm. We stayed with our heads together, listening. We didn’t want to talk in case the young man came back on the line. So we were silent. It took forever. But finally he was back.
“Janie?” he said.
“Yes, sir.”
“That was the correct address for your brother,” he said.
“Do you know where he is?” Joanie said.
The young man paused.
“No,” he said after a moment. “I don’t.”
“Can you tell me anything?” Joanie said.
Again the young man paused.
“Please,” Joanie said. Her voice was desperate. “Please. I don’t have a father. My mom’s dying. I don’t know where my brother is. Please tell me something. Anything. Please.”
“I was with the Forty-fifth Division,” the young man said. “At Anzio.”
Joanie and I waited.
“I’ll lose my job if you tell anyone I told you,” he said.
“I’ll never tell,” Joanie said. “I promise.”
“And,” the young man said, “there’s other jobs, anyway.”
“I won’t tell,” Joanie said.
“I’m sorry,” the young man said, “but your brother is listed as a deserter.”
“A deserter? Like, you mean AWOL?” Joanie said.
“Sort of like that,” the young man said.
“Oh my God,” Joanie said.
“If you find him,” the young man said, “he needs a lawyer.”
“Yes, sir,” Joanie said.
Chapter 37
It was too cold for the bandstand, so we went into the Village Shop. We had three nickels left from the phone call, so I went to the jukebox while Joanie ordered two black cows from Alice at the soda fountain. I played an Andy Russell record, one by Eddy Howard, and Johnny Mercer singing “Personality” with the Pied Pipers.
We took our black cows to the far back booth and sat down.
“Wow,” I said. “You were like Barbara Stanwyck or somebody.”
“I know,” Joanie said. “I thought I might actually cry at one point.”
I’m laughing on the outside, crying on the inside, ’cause I’m still in love with you.
“I love Andy Russell,” Joanie said.
“I know,” I said. “Girls do. That’s why I played him.”
“The guy at the VA was nice,” Joanie said.
“Yes,” I said. “I played Eddy Howard too.”
“Oh good,” Joanie said, “which one?”
“‘To Each His Own’.”
“He does that great,” Joanie said.
We listened to Andy Russell for a moment
Friends see me out dancing, carefree and romancing...
“How bad is it to be a deserter?” Joanie said. “Isn’t that pretty bad?”
“I think they can get the death penalty,” I said.
Joanie widened her eyes and pursed her lips and blew out her breath.