Читать книгу Are We There Yet? - Дэвид Левитан, David Levithan, Рэйчел Кон - Страница 17

DANNY CAN’T HELP BUT OVERHEAR THEM. ELIJAH IS, AFTER ALL, sitting at his elbow, taking up the armrest. Chatting away with the woman about disco groups. Unbelievable. Talking about college and girlfriends and Elijah’s prom. (“She disappeared after the second song, but that was OK …”) Danny usually assumes that lonely people are the only ones who have conversations on airplanes. Now he is faced with a dilemma: is he wrong, or is Elijah lonely? To sidestep the issue entirely, Danny decides that Elijah is an exception. Elijah, as always, is being unusually kind. While he himself is not lonely, he doesn’t mind talking to lonely people. He is the Mother Teresa of banter.

Danny silently waits for his introduction, the moment when Elijah gestures to him and says, “This is my brother.” Danny plans to put his guidebook down, smile a hello (taking a good look at the woman, who’s about ten years older than him, but still attractive), and then make a hasty retreat back to Inns & Hotels.

But the conversation never drifts his way. Instead, they are talking about Roman Holiday. Danny can’t believe it when Elijah says how much he loves Audrey Hepburn. He can understand it, but he can’t believe it, for it’s an adoration that he himself shares. Danny isn’t used to having something in common with Elijah, however slight. Their last name is the rope that ties them together. And now there is also this tiny thread. Audrey Hepburn.

Danny thinks about this for a moment. (If Elijah were to look over, he would notice his brother hasn’t turned the page in the past ten minutes.) As Elijah and this stranger discuss the ending of Roman Holiday and how it makes them feel (sad, happy), Danny wonders whether it’s true that everyone, at heart, likes Audrey Hepburn. So the similarity isn’t that strange at all. It’s as commonplace as the desire to eat when hungry. It doesn’t link the two brothers any more than that.

That is something Danny can believe.