Английский язык с Крестным Отцом

Франк Илья

keep that up."

Valenti was lumbering (to lumber – тяжело, неуклюже двигаться; lumber –

ненужные громоздкие вещи; бревна) up to him with little dancing steps. He threw his

arms around Jules, his breath stank of bourbon. He was laughing very hard. "Five

years?" he asked still laughing. "Is it going to take that long?"

A month after her operation Lucy Mancini sat beside the Vegas hotel pool, one hand

holding a cocktail, the other hand stroking Jules' head, which lay in her lap.

"You don't have to build up your courage," Jules said teasingly. "I have champagne

waiting in our suite."

"Are you sure it's OK so soon?" Lucy asked.

"I'm the doctor," Jules said. "Tonight's the big night. Do you realize I'll be the first

surgeon in medical history who tried out the results of his 'medical first' operation? You

know, the Before and After. I'm going to enjoy writing it up for the journals. Let's see,

'while the Before was distinctly pleasurable for psychological reasons and the

sophistication of the surgeon-instructor, the post-operative coitus was extremely

rewarding strictly for its neurological" – he stopped talking because Lucy had yanked on

his hair hard enough for him to yell with pain.

She smiled down at him. "If you're not satisfied tonight I can really say it's your fault,"

she said.

"I guarantee my work. I planned it even though I just let old Kellner do the manual

labor," Jules said. "Now let's just rest up, we have a long night of research ahead."

When they went up to their suite – they were living together now – Lucy found a

surprise waiting: a gourmet (гурман /франц./ ['gumei]) supper and next to her

champagne glass, a jeweler's box with a huge diamond engagement ring inside it.

"That shows you how much confidence I have in my work," Jules said. "Now let's see

you earn it."

He was very tender, very gentle with her. She was a little scary at first, her flesh

jumping away from his touch but then, reassured, she felt her body building up to a

passion she had never known, and when they were done the first time and Jules

whispered, "I do good work," she whispered back, "Oh, yes, you do; yes, you do." And

they both laughed to each other as they started making love again.

Book 6

Chapter 23

After five months of exile in Sicily, Michael Corleone came finally to understand his

father's character and his destiny. He carne to understand men like Luca Brasi, the

ruthless caporegime Clemenza. his mother's resignation and acceptance of her role.

For in Sicily he saw what they would have been if they had chosen not to struggle

against their fate. He understood why the Don always said, "A man has only one

148

destiny." He came to understand the contempt for authority and legal government, the

hatred for any man who broke omerta, the law of silence.

Dressed in old clothes and a billed cap, Michael had been transported from the ship

docked at Palermo to the interior of the Sicilian island, to the very heart of a province

controlled by the Mafia, where the local capo-mafioso was greatly indebted to his father

for some past service. The province held the town of Corleone, whose name the Don

had taken when he emigrated to Arnerica so long ago. But there were no longer any of

the Don's relatives alive. The women had died of old age. All the men had been killed in

vendettas or had also emigrated, either to America, Brazil or to some other province on

the Italian mainland. He was to learn later that this small poverty-stricken town had the

highest murder rate of any place in the world.

Michael was installed as a guest in the home of a bachelor uncle of the capo-mafioso.

The uncle, in his seventies, was also the doctor for the district. The capo-mafioso was a

man in his late fifties named Don Tommasino and he operated as the gabbellotto for a

huge estate belonging to one of Sicily's most noble families. The gabbellotto, a sort of

overseer to the estates of the rich, also guaranteed that the poor would not try to claim

land not being cultivated, would not try to encroach (вторгаться,

покушаться на чужие

права) in any way on the estate, by poaching (to poach – браконьерствовать;

незаконно вторгаться в чужие владения) or trying to farm it as squatters

(поселившийся незаконно на незанятой земле; to squat – сидеть на корточках). In

short, the gabbellotto was a mafioso who for a certain sum of money protected the real

estate of the rich from all claims made on it by the poor, legal or illegal. When any poor

peasant tried to implement (выполнять, осуществлять, обеспечивать выполнение)

the law which permitted him to buy uncultivated land, the gabbellotto frightened him off

with threats of bodily harm or death. It was that simple.

Don Tommasino also controlled the water rights in the area and vetoed the local

building of any new dams by the Roman government. Such dams would ruin the