Книга только для ознакомления
."
"No, dear. I thought I could rehabilitate him. I was wrong."
"That's not how I meant you were wrong. Remember the rats?"
'•Oh."
"Don't sound so miserable. We took Bill with us because each of us was
afraid that, if we didn't, he would be killed, possibly eaten alive by rats.
Gwen, we both knew the hazards of picking up stray kittens, we both understood
the concept 'Chinese obligation.' We did it anyhow." I tilted up her chin,
kissed her. "And we would again, this very minute. Knowing the price."
"Oh, I love you!"
"I love you, too, in a sweaty, vulgar fashion."
"Uh... now?"
"I need a bath."
"We can bathe later."
I had just retrieved Gwen's other baggage, temporarily forgotten outside
the door-and happily untouched-and we were getting ready to bathe when Gwen bent
over the little tree, then picked it up and put it on the shelf table by the
dumbwaiter so she could get at it better. "Present for you, Richard."
"Goodie. Girls? Or liquor?"
"Neither. Although I understand both are readily available.
The desk manager wanted a cut of my fee when I bought Bill a key here."
"Bill is here?"
"Overnight, in the cheapest single. Richard, I didn't know what to do with
Bill. I would have told him to find his own doss in Bottom Alley if I hadn't
heard something Rabbi Ezra said about rats. Dam it all, there did not used to be
rats down there
|
