JК
Bag of Bones :: Кинг Стивен
Страница: 416 из 425I must have checked on her a dozen times before I went to bed… and thenI kept checking. Getting up and peeking in on her, listening to her breathe. I didn’t sleep a wink Friday night, caught maybe three hours on Saturday. So this is a big improvement. But if you ever blab any of what I’ve told you, Frank—if they ever hear about me filling up that bathtub before the storm knocked the gennie out—I can kiss my chances of adopting her goodbye. I’ll probably have to fill out a form in triplicate before they even let me attend her high-school graduation.” I hadn’t meant to tell Frank the bathtub part, but once I started talking, almost everything spilled out. I suppose it had to spill to someone if Iwas ever to get on with my life. I’d assumed that John Storrow would be the one on the other side of the confessional when the time came, but John didn’t want to talk about any of those events except as they bore on our ongoing legal business, which nowadays is all about Kyra Elizabeth Devore. “I’ll keep my mouth shut, don’t worry. How goes the adoption battle?”
“Slow. I’ve come to loathe the State of Maine court system, and DHS as well. You take the people who work in those bureaucracies one by one and they’re mostly fine, but when you put them together…”
“Bad, huh?”
“I sometimes feel like a character in Bleak House. That’s the one where Dickens says that in court nobody wins but the lawyers. John tells me to be patient and count my blessings, that we’re making amazing progress considering that I’m that most untrustworthy of creatures, an unmarried white male of middle age, but Ki’s been in two foster-home situations since Mattie died, and—”
“Doesn’t she have kin in one of those neighboring towns?”
“Mattie’s aunt. She didn’t want anything to do with Ki when Mattie was alive and has even less interest now. Especially since—”
“—since Ki’s not going to be rich.”
“Yeah.”
“The Whitmore woman was lying about Devore’s will.”
“Absolutely. He left everything to a foundation that’s supposed to foster global computer literacy. With due respect to the numbercrunchers of the world, I can’t imagine a colder charity.”
“How is John?”
“Pretty well mended, but he’s never going to get the use of his right affn back entirely. He damned near died of blood-loss.” Frank had led me away from the entwined subjects of Ki and custody quite well for a man deep into his third Scotch, and I was willing enough to go.
“Slow. I’ve come to loathe the State of Maine court system, and DHS as well. You take the people who work in those bureaucracies one by one and they’re mostly fine, but when you put them together…”
“Bad, huh?”
“I sometimes feel like a character in Bleak House. That’s the one where Dickens says that in court nobody wins but the lawyers. John tells me to be patient and count my blessings, that we’re making amazing progress considering that I’m that most untrustworthy of creatures, an unmarried white male of middle age, but Ki’s been in two foster-home situations since Mattie died, and—”
“Doesn’t she have kin in one of those neighboring towns?”
“Mattie’s aunt. She didn’t want anything to do with Ki when Mattie was alive and has even less interest now. Especially since—”
“—since Ki’s not going to be rich.”
“Yeah.”
“The Whitmore woman was lying about Devore’s will.”
“Absolutely. He left everything to a foundation that’s supposed to foster global computer literacy. With due respect to the numbercrunchers of the world, I can’t imagine a colder charity.”
“How is John?”
“Pretty well mended, but he’s never going to get the use of his right affn back entirely. He damned near died of blood-loss.” Frank had led me away from the entwined subjects of Ki and custody quite well for a man deep into his third Scotch, and I was willing enough to go.