The Shining by Stephen King, 1977 36 страница

She had cut it short.

"I've decided to take Al-Mr. Shockley-up on his offer," she

said.

Hallorann nodded. "It sounds like a good job. Something you

could get interested in. When do you start?"

"Right after Labor Day. When Danny and I leave here, we'll be

going right on to Maryland to look for a place. It was really

the Chamber of Commerce brochure that convinced me, you know.

It looks like a nice town to raise a kid in. And I'd like to

be working again before we dig too deeply into the insurance

money Jack left. There's still over forty thousand dollars.

Enough to send Danny to college with enough left over to get

him a start, if it's invested right."

Hallorann nodded. "Your mom?"

She looked at him and smiled wanly. "I think Maryland is far

enough."

"You won't forget old friends, will you?"

"Danny wouldn't let me. Go on down and see him, he's been

waiting all day."

"Well, so have L" He stood up and hitched his cook's whites

at the hips. "The two of you are going to be okay," he

repeated. "Can't you feel it?"

She looked up at him and this time her smile was warmer.

"Yes," she said. She took his hand and kissed it. "Sometimes I

think I can."

"The shrimp creole," he said, moving to the steps. "Don't

forget."

"I won't."

He walked down the sloping, graveled path that led to the

dock and then out along the weather-beaten boards to the end,

where Danny sat with his feet in the clear water. Beyond, the

lake widened out, mirroring the pines along its verge. The

terrain was mountainous around here, but the mountains were

old, rounded and humbled by time. Hallorann liked them just

fine.

"Catchin much?" Hallorann said, sitting down next to him. He

took off one shoe, then the other. With a sigh, he let his hot

feet down into the cool water.

"No. But I had a nibble a little while ago."

"We'll take a boat out tomorrow morning. Got to get out in

the middle if you want to catch an eatin fish, my boy. Out

yonder is where the big ones lay."

"How big?"

Hallorann shrugged. "Oh... sharks, marlin, whales, that sort

of thing."

"There aren't any whales!"

"No blue whales, no. Of course not. These ones here run to no

more than eighty feet. Pink whales."

"How could they get here from the ocean?"

Hallorann put a hand on the boy's reddish-gold hair and

rumpled it. "They swim upstream, my boy. That's how."

"Really?"

"Really."

They were silent for a time, looking out over the stillness

of the lake, Hallorann just thinking. When he looked back at

Danny, he saw that his eyes had filled with tears.

Putting an arm around him, he said, "What's this?"

"Nothing," Danny whispered.

"You're missin your dad, aren't you?"

Danny nodded. "You always know." One of the tears spilled

from the corner of his right eye and trickled slowly down his

cheek.

"We can't have any secrets," Hallorann agreed. "That's just

how it is."

Looking at his pole, Danny said: "Sometimes I wish it had

been me. It was my fault. All my fault."

Hallorann said, "You don't like to talk about it around your

mom, do you?"

"No. She wants to forget it ever happened. So do I, but-"

"But you can't."

"No."

"Do you need to cry?"

The boy tried to answer, but the words were swallowed in a

sob. He leaned his head against Hallorann's shoulder and wept,

the tears now flooding down his face. Hallorann held him and

said nothing. The boy would have to shed his tears again and

again, he knew, and it was Danny's luck that he was still

young enough to be able to do that. The tears that heal are

also the tears that scald and scourge.

When he had quieted a little, Hallorann said, "You're gonna

get over this. You don't think you are right now, but you

will. You got the shi-"

"I wish I didn't!" Danny choked, his voice still thick with

tears. "I wish I didn't have it!"

"But you do," Hallorann said quietly. "For better or worse.

You didn't get no say, little boy. But the worst is over. You

can use it to talk to me when things get rough. And if they

get too rough, you just call me and I'll come."

"Even if I'm down in Maryland?"

"Even there."

They were quiet, watching Danny's bobber drift around thirty

feet out from the end of the dock. Then Danny said, almost too

low to be heard, "You'll be my friend?"

"As long as you want me."

The boy held him tight and Hallorann hugged him.

"Danny? You listen to me. I'm going to talk to you about it

this once and never again this same way. There's some things

no six-year-old boy in the world should have to be told, but

the way things should be and the way things are hardly ever

get together. The world's a hard place, Danny. It don't care.

It don't hate you and me, but it don't love us, either.

Terrible things happen in the world, and they're things no one

can explain. Good people die in bad, painful ways and leave

the folks that love them all alone. Sometimes it seems like

it's only the bad people who stay healthy and prosper. The

world don't love you, but your momma does and so do I. You're

a good boy. You grieve for your daddy, and when you feel you

have to cry over what happened to him, you go into a closet or

under your covers and cry until it's all out of you again.

That's what a good son has to do. But see that you get on.

That's your job in this hard world, to keep your love alive

and see that you get on, no matter what. Pull your act

together and just go on."

"All right," Danny whispered. "I'll come see you again next

summer if you want... if you don't mind. Next summer I'm going

to be seven."

"And I'll be sixty-two. And I'm gonna hug your brains out

your ears. But let's finish one summer before we get on to the

next."

"Okay." He looked at Hallorann. "Dick?"

"Hmm?"

"You won't die for a long time, will you?"

"I'm sure not studyin on it. Are you?"

"No, sir. I-"

"You got a bite, sonny." He pointed. The red and white bobber

had ducked under. It came up again glistening, and then went

under again.

"Hey!" Danny gulped.

Wendy had come down and now joined them, standing in back of

Danny. "What is it?" she asked. "Pickerel?"

"No, ma'am," Hallorann said, "I believe that's a pink whale."

The tip of the fishing rod bent. Danny pulled it back and a

long fish, rainbow-colored, flashed up in a sunny, winking

parabola, and disappeared again.

Danny reeled frantically, gulping.

"Help me, Dick! I got him! I got him! Help me!"

Hallorann laughed. "You're doin fine all by yourself, little

man. I don't know if it's a pink whale or a trout, but it'll

do. It'll do just fine."

He put an arm around Danny's shoulders and the boy reeled the

fish in, little by little. Wendy sat down on Danny's other

side and the three of them sat on the end of the dock in the

afternoon sun.

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