“It would have been the same as suicide,” Drogan said. “In her mind she was still a wealthy woman, perfectly capable of packing up that cat and going to New York or London or even Monte Carlo with it. In fact she was the last of a great family, living on a pittance as a result of a number of bad investments in the sixties. She lived on the second floor here in a specially controlled, superhumidified room. The woman was seventy, Mr. Halston. She was a heavy smoker until the last two years of her life, and the emphysema was very bad. I wanted her here, and if the cat had to stay...”
Halston nodded and then glanced meaningfully at his watch.
“Near the end of June, she died in the night (ближе к концу июня она умерла ночью). The doctor seemed to take it as a matter of course (доктор, казалось, воспринял это как должное;
спящими
“Cats like to knead soft things with their paws, you see (понимаете, кошки любят мять лапами /разные/ мягкие вещи;
shag — жесткая, лохматаяшевелюра; грубыйворс
crib — кормушка, ясли; детская кроватка /с боковыми решетчатыми стенками/
to start — начинать; to start with — начать с того, что..., прежде всего
“An old wives' tale.”
“Based on fact, like most so-called old wives' tales,” Drogan replied.
“Cats like to knead soft things with their paws, you see. A pillow, a thick shag rug... or a blanket. A crib blanket or an old person's blanket. The extra weight on a person who's weak to start with...”
Drogan trailed off, and Halston thought about it (Дроган умолк, и Хэлстон обдумал =
пораженных
), the sound nearly lost in the whisper of special humidifiers and air conditioners (/этот/ звук практически теряется =
). The cat with the queer black-and-white markings leaps silently onto her spinster's bed (кот с необычными черно-белыми отметинами бесшумно запрыгивает на старушечью постель;
) and stares at her old and wrinkle-grooved face with those lambent, black-and-green eyes (и пристально вглядывается светящимися, черно-зелеными глазами в ее старческое, изрытое морщинами лицо;
наваливается
)…, and the breathing slows... slows...and the cat purrs (и дыхание /все/ замедляется, замедляется…, а кот урчит;
to have со сложным дополнением указывает на то, что действие выполняется не самим заказчиком, а другим человеком по желанию, требованию или заказу; to put away — убирать; убивать
семейном кладбище
wicker — /собир./ прутья для плетения, ивняк; hamper — корзина с крышкой; sort of — что-то вроде
Drogan trailed off, and Halston thought about it. Carolyn Broadmoor asleep in her bedroom, the breath rasping in and out of her damaged lungs, the sound nearly lost in the whisper of special humidifiers and air conditioners. The cat with the queer black-and-white markings leaps silently onto her spinster's bed and stares at her old and wrinkle-grooved face with those lambent, black-and-green eyes. It creeps onto her thin chest and settles its weight there, purring.., and the breathing slows... slows... and the cat purrs as the old woman slowly smothers beneath its weight on her chest.
He was not an imaginative man, but Halston shivered a little.
“Drogan,” he said, continuing to stroke the purring cat. “Why don't you just have it put away? A vet would give it the gas for twenty dollars.”
Drogan said, “The funeral was on the first day of July, I had Carolyn buried in our cemetery plot next to my sister. The way she would have wanted it. On July third I called Gage to this room and handed him a wicker basket…, a picnic hamper sort of thing. Do you know what I mean?”
Halston nodded.
“I told him to put the cat in it and take it to a vet in Milford and have it put to sleep (я велел ему посадить в нее кота и отвезти его к ветеринару в Милфорд, чтобы тот его усыпил;
случилась
). The Lincoln was driven into a bridge abutment at better than sixty miles an hour (“линкольн” въехал в =
воображении
онскотом
to enquire — спрашивать, узнавать
“I told him to put the cat in it and take it to a vet in Milford and have it put to sleep. He said, 'Yes, sir,' took the basket, and went out. Very like him. I never saw him alive again. There was an accident on the turnpike. The Lincoln was driven into a bridge abutment at better than sixty miles an hour. Dick Gage was killed instantly. When they found him there were scratches on his face.”
Halston was silent as the picture of how it might have been formed in his brain again. No sound in the room but the peaceful crackle of the fire and the peaceful purr of the cat in his lap. He and the cat together before the fire would make a good illustration for that Edgar Guest poem, the one that goes: “The cat on my lap, the hearth's good fire/...A happy man, should you enquire.”
Dick Gage moving the Lincoln down the turnpike toward Milford (Дик Гейдж едет на “линкольне” по шоссе в Милфорд;
to beat — бить; превосходить
to pass — проходить, проезжать; обгонять; cab-over — грузовойавтомобильскабинойнаддвигателем; Jimmy — автомобиль производства компании "Дженерал моторс"
черно-белую
ивэтотмомент
to rake — скрести; царапать; rake — грабли
hook — крюк
to dig in — зарывать; вонзать; exquisite — изысканный; острый, резкий; damning — убийственный; гибельный
to lay — класть, положить
wild — дикий; неконтролируемый
shine — сияние; to hit — ударять
Dick Gage moving the Lincoln down the turnpike toward Milford, beating the speed limit by maybe five miles an hour. The wicker basket beside him — a picnic hamper sort of thing. The chauffeur is watching traffic, maybe he's passing a big cab-over Jimmy and he doesn't notice the peculiar black-on-one-side, white-on-the-other face that pokes out of one side of the basket. Out of the driver's side. He doesn't notice because he's passing the big trailer truck and that's when the cat jumps onto his face, spitting and clawing, its talons raking into one eye, puncturing it, deflating it, blinding it. Sixty and the hum of the Lincoln's big motor and the other paw is hooked over the bridge of the nose, digging in with exquisite, damning pain — maybe the Lincoln starts to veer right, into the path of the Jimmy, and its airhorn blares ear-shatteringly, but Gage can't hear it because the cat is yowling, the cat is spread-eagled over his face like some huge furry black spider, ears laid back, green eyes glaring like spotlights from hell, back legs jittering and digging into the soft flesh of the old man's neck. The car veers wildly back the other way. The bridge abutment looms. The cat jumps down and the Lincoln, a shiny black torpedo, hits the cement and goes up like a bomb.