Chapter N.XVI

Little girl was brought out of her memories by the first drops of rain lashing the window glass. Delia hurriedly jumped from the windowsill, shook off the tiny wet droplets from her chemise and, after briefly admiring the night sky covered with gloomy clouds, slammed the shutters, not caring at all that this sound could easily reach the sensitive ears of her mother. Baby girl deliberately did not close the curtains - she wanted the sun's rays to penetrate into her room in the morning, which would give her a little warmth and light, which she had been missing so much lately.

She turned her back to the window and walked towards her bed. Making sure no one is there - oh those childhood fears! - Delia pulled back the edge of the covers and sank onto the cold sheets, but she was in no hurry to lie down. Instead, she sat on the edge of the bed and began to slowly rock back and forth, as if in a rocking chair. An almost dreamy smile wandered across her concentrated face - it seemed as if she was imagining herself standing on the deck of a small yacht sailing on the waves of the endless sea. Be that as it may, the rhythm in which she swayed did her good - by the time it was already raining outside, Delia had already mastered her emotions and leaned back on the pillow with a smile on her lips.

However, she still couldn't sleep - all she could achieve was to replace one memory with another. Pulling the blanket over herself, Delia fixed her unblinking eyes straight on the ceiling and immediately plunged into the peaceful stupor that was so characteristic of her that night. No one interfered with this process - the mother, apparently, had been sleeping was like a light a long time ago, since not a single sound from her daughter's bedroom woke woman up, which she would have perceived as an alarm signal. As for her father, Delia wasn't even sure whether he was actually in the house right now - who knows, maybe he stayed overnight at his friend's apartment, as he often did when he's got a deadline at work.

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The girl continued to feel worried about her adult friend - it seemed to her that Jordan was languishing somewhere in captivity at that moment, like the youthful Sagamore from the fairy tale that she heard while visiting ajussi Japh. Delia still remembered the day when, for the first time in two months of their relationship, she did not find ajussi Jo in his own house (not counting, of course, those moments when he went to the center on business). This was about a day after her visit to his close friend - at first, for no apparent reason, the parents took the girl to the gynaecologist, youngish mister Madison Fraser, who, casually (one might even say, "for show"), examined her feminine nature, told gloomy mother of Delia that her daughter "Everything is exactly as she suspected!", released his patient on all four sides.

Delia, accustomed to her parents never discussing with her "low-order problems" (as her deeply religious father put it), did not ask them any questions about what happened, and resignedly went with her mother to the apartment of Jorge Coghill - father's old friend, where both women stayed for the night, while the head of the family himself went home "on urgent business", as he briefly explained to his wife and daughter. The next morning Delia was woken up by the owner of the apartment, a gray-haired and tall man - mister Coghill himself. Having treated his guests to coffee and toast, he shared with Delia's mother two meaningless pieces of news from the life of New York bohemian, and then invited them to some very significant event, but the mother politely refused mister Coghill and, citing lack of time, hurried away with daughter, left him alone with his wife - missis Susan Coghill, as old and tall as her spouse.

Throughout the next day, Delia was extremely uncommunicative with her family - when little girl got home on the bus, she didn't even say hello to her father, who greeted both of his women with an uncharacteristic sense of tact and tolerance. It seemed as if he deliberately kept himself as polite as possible - he even allowed baby girl to start dinner without forcing her to say a grace before eating, which in normal times would probably have been an unimaginable violation of the established customs of their family.

Delia suspected that her father was deliberately playing the role of a kind family man, to make amends for her some misdeed, about which the girl had not the slightest idea. However, a day later, she began to understand something. When at breakfast, according to her custom, she announced to her family that she was going to visit Jordan, her mother looked at her as if she were talking about something completely unthinkable, and her father, staring gloomily at his plate, took the sandwich in his hands and sighed.

- Shouldn't be doing that, - he said firmly and sternly, chewing a ham sandwich generously spread with mustard.

The little girl looked questioningly at her father, but he continued to move his huge jaws steadily, not paying attention to his daughter. Then Delia turned her gaze to her mother.

- Mom, why can't I go to ajussi Jo? - she asked, feeling a sense of danger growing in her chest.

- Because, - father, who has already finished eating, answered for her, - that neighbourly dog went mad from the heat and ran away, and now he's wandering around and might bump into you.

- Are you not going to let me go at all? - Delia feigned offence.

- We can let you go outside, but don't go to your neighbour, - father continued. - Who knows, what if the dog has already managed to bite him?

- He's got a point, - The girl's mother, who had previously been sitting silently, suddenly gave a voice. - Listen to dad, Delia, and don't wander around the surroundings alone.

- So will you allow me or not? - Delia repeated loudly and persistently, desperate to wait for a clear answer from her parents.