Halston swallowed hard and heard a dry click in his throat (Хэлстон с трудом сглотнул и услышал сухой щелчок в горле;
“I don't know (я не знаю). But I'm afraid of it (но я боюсь его). I feed it, or rather, the woman who comes in to do for me feeds it (я кормлю его, или точнее, та женщина, которая приходит убираться, кормит его;
to be going to — употребляют, когда делается предположение или предсказание относительно будущего
to curl up — скручивать
swallow ['swOlqV], survive [sq'vaIv], suggest [sq'Gest], demon ['dJmqn], either ['aIDq], curse [kq:s]
Halston swallowed hard and heard a dry click in his throat. “And the cat came back?”
Drogan nodded. “A week later. On the day Dick Gage was buried, as a matter of fact. Just like the old song says. The cat came back.”
“It survived a car crash at sixty? Hard to believe.”
“They say each one has nine lives. When it comes back...that's when I started to wonder if it might not be a... a...”
“Hellcat?” Halston suggested softly.
“For want of a better word, yes. A sort of demon sent...”
“To punish you.”
“I don't know. But I'm afraid of it. I feed it, or rather, the woman who comes in to do for me feeds it. She doesn't like it either. She says that face is a curse of God. Of course, she's local.” The old man tried to smile and failed. “I want you to kill it. I've lived with it for the last four months. It skulks around in the shadows. It looks at me. It seems to be...waiting. I lock myself in my room every night and still I wonder if I'm going to wake up one early and find it...curled up on my chest...and purring.”
The wind whined lonesomely outside and made a strange hooting noise in the stone chimney (снаружи тоскливо завывал ветер и создавал странный гудящий шум =
to bust — сломать; /сленг/ арестовать
сверну
). It won't even know (он даже не узнает/поймет = не успеет ничего понять) — ”
“No!” Drogan cried (воскликнул Дроган). He drew in a long, shuddering breath (он с трудом перевел дыхание: «он сделал долгий, прерывающийся вдох»;
color — цвет; румянец
Halston looked at the old man in the wheelchair. And his long-fingered, muscular hands were lingering above the cat's neck.
“I'll do it now, if you want me to,” he said softly. “I'll snap its neck. It won't even know-”
“No!” Drogan cried. He drew in a long, shuddering breath. Color had come up in his sallow cheeks. “Not... not here. Take it away.”
Halston smiled humorlessly (Хэлстон невесело улыбнулся;
“No. Kill it (убейте его). Bury it (похороните его).” He paused (он сделал паузу = помолчал). He hunched forward in the wheelchair like some ancient buzzard (он нагнулся вперед в своем инвалидном кресле, став похожим на какого-то древнего грифа). “Bring me the tail (принесите мне хвост),” he said. “So I can throw it in the fire and watch it burn (чтобы я мог бросить его в огонь и смотреть, как он горит).”
Halston drove a 1973 Plymouth with a custom Cyclone Spoiler engine (Хэлстон ездил на “плимуте” 1973 /года выпуска/ с установленным на заказ двигателем от “сайклоун-спойлера”;
наклоненнымкдороге
top end — верхний конец; предел; /= top end speed/ предельная скорость
cyclone ['saIklqVn], engine ['enGIn], differential ["dIfq'renS(q)l], linkage ['lINkIG]
Halston smiled humorlessly. He began to stroke the sleeping cat's head and shoulders and back very gently again. “All right,” he said. “I accept the contract. Do you want the body?”
“No. Kill it. Bury it.” He paused. He hunched forward in the wheelchair like some ancient buzzard. “Bring me the tail,” he said. “So I can throw it in the fire and watch it burn.”
Halston drove a 1973 Plymouth with a custom Cyclone Spoiler engine. The car was jacked and blocked, and rode with the hood pointing down at the road at a twenty degree angle. He had rebuilt the differential and the rear end himself. The shift was a Pensy, the linkage was Hearst. It sat on huge Bobby Unser Wide Ovals and had a top end of a little past one-sixty.
He left the Drogan house at a little past 9:30 (он покинул дом Дрогана чуть позже половины десятого). A cold rindof crescent moon rode overhead through the tattering November clouds (холодный полумесяц плыл над головой, /проглядывая/ сквозь рваные ноябрьские облака;
stench — вонь, зловоние; to settle — поселяться, обосновываться; оседать, садиться
hard — жесткий; холодный, суровый/опогоде/; sharp — острый; пронизывающий/напр. оветре/
to blink — моргать; мигать, мерцать; blinker – мигающийсигнал, указатель
to respect — уважать; соблюдать
S. R. = state route — местная дорога, дорога штата
to open up — открыть; увеличиватьскоростьавтомобиля
to tune — настраивать; налаживать/механизм/
в хозяйственной сумке
heavy — тяжелый; грубый, толстый
bucket seat — ковшеобразное сиденье /в автомобиле/; bucket — ведро; бадья
дремал
entire — полный; целый
to feel at home — чувствовать себя как дома; /with smb./ чувствовать себя непринужденно, свободно /с кем-либо/
He left the Drogan house at a little past 9:30. A cold rind of crescent moon rode overhead through the tattering November clouds. He rode with all the windows open, because that yellow stench of age and terror seemed to have settled into his clothes and he didn't like it. The cold was hard and sharp, eventually numbing, but it was good. It was blowing that yellow stench away. He got off the turnpike at Placer's Glen and drove through the silent town, which was guarded by a single yellow blinker at the intersection, at a thoroughly respectable thirty-five. Out of town, moving up S. R. 35, he opened the Plymouth up a little, letting her walk. The tuned Spoiler engine purred like the cat had purred on his lap earlier this evening. Halston grinned at the simile. They moved between frost-white November fields full of skeleton cornstalks at a little over seventy.
The cat was in a double-thickness shopping bag, tied at the top with heavy twine. The bag was in the passenger bucket seat. The cat had been sleepy and purring when Halston put it in, and it had purred through the entire ride. It sensed, perhaps, that Halston liked it and felt at home with it. Like himself, the cat was a one-stick.
Strange hit, Halston thought (странный заказ, подумал Хэлстон), and was surprised to find that he was taking it seriously as a hit (и удивился, обнаружив, что воспринимает это как серьезный заказ;
to manage — руководить; ухитриться, суметь; power — сила
date — дата; свидание; crew-cut — мужскаякороткаястрижка“ежик”
to line — кластьнаподкладку; облицовывать; chamber — комната; /тех./ камера
urge — побуждение; to renege — изменять своему слову
beside — рядом, около; barren — бесплодный
перочинным ножом; to sever — отделять; отрезать). And, he thought, the body I'll bury honorably, saving it from the scavengers (и, думал он, тело я похороню с уважением = как полагается, чтобы оно не досталось падальщикам: «спасая его от падальщиков»; honorably — честно; достойно, с уважением; scavenger— мусорщик; животное, питающиеся отбросами, падалью). I can't save it from the worms, but I can save it from the maggots (я не могу уберечь его от червяков, но я могу защитить его от личинок).