Английский язык с Крестным Отцом
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wants me to catch the morning plane. Can you meet it in Los Angeles? I have to fly
back to New York the same night so you won't have to worry about keeping your night
free for me."
"Sure, Tom," Johnny said. "And don't worry about me losing a night. Stay over and
relax a bit. I'll throw a party and you can meet some movie people." He always made
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that offer, he didn't want the folks from his old neighborhood to think he was ashamed of
them.
"Thanks," Hagen said, "but I really have to catch the early morning plane back. OK,
you'll meet the eleven-thirty A.M. out of New York?"
"Sure," Johnny said.
"Stay in your car," Hagen said. "Send one of your people to meet me when I get off
the plane and bring me to you."
"Right," Johnny said.
He went back to the living room and Ginny looked at him inquiringly. "My Godfather
has some plan for me, to help me out," Johnny said. "He got me the part in the movie, I
don't know how. But I wish he'd stay out of the rest of it."
He went back onto the sofa. He felt very tired. Ginny said, "Why don't you sleep in the
guest bedroom tonight instead of going home? You can have breakfast with the kids
and you won't have to drive home so late. I hate to think of you all alone in that house of
yours anyway. Don't you get lonely?"
"I don't stay home much," Johnny said.
She laughed and said, "Then you haven't changed much." She paused and then said,
"Shall I fix up the other bedroom?"
Johnny said, "Why can't I sleep in your bedroom?"
She flushed. "No," she said. She smiled at him and he smiled back. They were still
friends.
When Johnny woke up the next morning it was late, he could tell by the sun coming in
through the drawn blinds. It never came in that way unless it was in the afternoon. He
yelled, "Hey, Ginny, do I still rate (заслуживать,
away he heard her voice call, "Just a second."
And it was just a second. She must have had everything ready, hot in the oven, the tray
waiting to be loaded, because as Johnny lit his first cigarette of the day, the door of the
bedroom opened and his two small daughters came in wheeling the breakfast cart
(тележка, тачка; здесь: поднос на колесиках).
They were so beautiful it broke his heart. Their faces were shining and clear, their
eyes alive with curiosity and the eager desire to run to him. They wore their hair braided
old-fashioned in long pigtails and they wore old-fashioned frocks and white patent-
leather (лакированный) shoes. They stood by the breakfast cart watching him as he
stubbed out his cigarette and waited for him to call and hold his arms wide. Then they
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came running to him. He pressed his face between their two fresh fragrant cheeks and
scraped them with his beard so that they shrieked. Ginny appeared in the bedroom door
and wheeled the breakfast cart the rest of the way so that he could eat in bed. She sat
beside him on the edge of the bed, pouring his coffee, buttering his toast. The two
young daughters sat on the bedroom couch watching him. They were too old now for
pillow fights or to be tossed (to toss –
were already smoothing their mussed (to muss – приводить в беспорядок, путать)
hair. Oh, Christ, he thought, pretty soon they'll be all grown up, Hollywood punks will be
out after them.
He shared his toast and bacon with them as he ate, gave them sips of coffee. It was a
habit left over from when he had been singing with the band and rarely ate with them so
they liked to share his food when he had his odd-hour meals like afternoon breakfasts
or morning suppers. The change-around in food delighted them – to eat steak and
french fries (картофель фри, чипсы) at seven in the morning, bacon and eggs in the
afternoon.
Only Ginny and a few of his close friends knew how much he idolized his daughters.
That had been the worst thing about the divorce and leaving home. The one thing he
had fought about, and for, was his position as a father to them. In a very sly way he had
made Ginny understand he would not be pleased by her remarrying, not because he
was jealous of her, but because he was jealous of his position as a father. He had
arranged the money to be paid to her so it would be enormously to her advantage
financially not to remarry. It was understood that she could have lovers as long as they
were not introduced into her home life. But on this score he had absolute faith in her.
She had always been amazingly shy and old-fashioned in sex. The Hollywood gigolos
had batted zero (выбивали ноль = ничего не могли добиться; bat – бита /в
бейсболе/) when they started swarming around her, sniffing for the financial settlement
and the favors they could get from her famous husband.