Читать книгу Are We There Yet? - Дэвид Левитан, David Levithan, Рэйчел Кон - Страница 9

BUT NO.

At one in the morning the night before departure, Danny wakes up with a start.

He hasn’t talked to Elijah since their mother made the offer. He should have talked to him, and has tried to, but whenever he’s called, someone else has answered. Probably some pothead incapable of taking a message. Danny wants to be well-Fodored and well-Frommered by the time he sets down on Italian soil. But what will Elijah want to do? What does Elijah normally do?

I’ll have to talk to him. For a week. Nine days.

But about what?

How’s life? (Two-minute answer.) How’s school? (Five minutes, tops.) How’s life with the dope fiends? (Maybe not a minute – maybe just a Look.) What do you want to do today? (That one could stretch out – maybe twenty minutes each day, depending on the repetition of shrugs.) So isn’t this a fine mess we’re in? (Rhetorical – no help.)

Danny gets out of bed, switches on the light and squints. He counts his traveller’s checks; he’s bringing extra spending money, assuming Elijah won’t have any. He takes out the list of gifts he has to buy, makes sure it’s in his wallet, and makes sure his wallet is on the bureau by the keys.

He knows he is missing something. He is always missing something. He can never get past the first step of finding it, which is knowing what it is.

He stays up most of the night, doing things like this. He doesn’t want to forget anything. And, more than that, he wants to think of something to say.