Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
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cigarette. As he walked to the phone he pulled off his tie and started to unbutton his
shirt, getting ready for his little nap. Then he picked up the phone and said with quiet
courtesy, "Hello."
Мультиязыковой проект Ильи Франка www.franklang.ru
The voice on the other end was harsh, strained. "This is Tom Hagen," it said. "I'm
calling for Don Corleone, at his request."
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Amerigo Bonasera felt the coffee churning (churn –
– взбивать /масло/; взбалтывать, вспенивать) sourly in his stomach, felt himself
going a little sick. It was more than a year since he had put himself in the debt of the
Don to avenge his daughter's honor and in that time the knowledge that he must pay
that debt had receded. He had been so grateful seeing the bloody faces of those two
ruffians that he would have done anything for the Don. But time erodes gratitude more
quickly than it does beauty. Now Bonasera felt the sickness of a man faced with
disaster. His voice faltered as he answered, "Yes, I understand. I'm
listening."
He was surprised at the coldness in Hagen's voice. The Consigliori had always been
a courteous man, though not Italian, but now he was being rudely brusque. "You owe
the Don a service," Hagen said. "He has no doubt that you will repay him. That you will
be happy to have this opportunity. In one hour, not before, perhaps later, he will be at
your funeral parlor to ask for your help. Be there to greet him. Don't have any people
who work for you there. Send them home. If you have any objections to this, speak now
and I'll inform Don Corleone. He has other friends who can do him this service."
Amerigo Bonasera almost cried out in his fright, "How can you think I would refuse the
Godfather? Of course I'll do anything he wishes. I haven't forgotten my debt. I'll go to my
business immediately, at once."
Hagen's voice was gentler now, but there was something strange about it. "Thank
you," he said. "The Don never doubted you. The question was mine. Oblige him tonight
and you can always come to me in any trouble, you'll earn my personal friendship."
This frightened Amerigo Bonasera even more. He stuttered, "The Don himself is
coming to me tonight?"
"Yes," Hagen said.
"Then he's completely recovered from his injuries, thank God," Bonasera said. His
voice made it a question.
There was a pause at the other end of the phone, then Hagen's voice said very quietly,
"Yes." There was a click and the phone went dead.
Bonasera was sweating. He went into the bedroom and changed his shirt and rinsed
his mouth. But he didn't shave or use a fresh tie. He put on the same one he had used
during the day. He called the funeral parlor and told his assistant to stay with the
bereaved family using the front parlor that night. He himself would be busy in the
Мультиязыковой
laboratory working area of the building. When the assistant started asking questions
Bonasera cut him off very curtly and told him to follow orders exactly.
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He put on his suit jacket and his wife, still eating, looked up at him in surprise. "I have
work to do," he said and she did not dare question him because of the look on his face.
Bonasera went out of the house and walked the few blocks to his funeral parlor.
This building stood by itself on a large lot with a white picket fence running all around
it. There was a narrow roadway leading from the street to the rear, just wide enough for
ambulances and hearses (hearse [h:s] – катафалк, похоронные дроги). Bonasera
unlocked the gate and left it open. Then he walked to the rear of the building and
entered it through the wide door there. As he did so he could see mourners already
entering the front door of the funeral parlor to pay their respects to the current corpse.
Many years ago when Bonasera had bought this building from an undertaker planning
to retire, there had been a stoop of about ten steps that mourners had to mount before
entering the funeral parlor. This had posed a problem. Old and crippled mourners
determined to pay their respects had found the steps almost impossible to mount, so
the former undertaker had used the freight elevator for these people, a small metal
platform, that rose out of the ground beside the building. The elevator was for coffins
and bodies. It would descend underground, then rise into the funeral parlor itself, so that
a crippled mourner would find himself rising through the floor beside the coffin as other
mourners moved their black chairs aside to let the elevator rise through the trapdoor
(люк, опускная дверь; trap – ловушка, капкан; /вентиляционная/ дверь /в шахте/).
Then when the crippled or aged mourner (скорбящий; to mourn – скорбеть,