Читать книгу The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Selected Tales of the Jazz Age Сollection. Адаптированная книга для чтения на английском языке. Уровень B1 - Френсис Скотт Фицджеральд, Френсис Фицджеральд - Страница 3

«Good morning», Mr. Button said nervously to the clerk in the store. «I want to buy some clothes for my child».

«How old is your child, sir?»

«About six hours», answered Mr. Button, without thinking.

«Babies' department is there».

«Why, I don't think – I'm not sure that's what I want. It's – he's an unusually large-size child. Extremely large».

«They have the largest child's sizes».

«Where is the boys' department?» asked Mr. Button. He felt that the clerk could see his shame. He felt that the clerk must know his shameful secret.

«Right here».

«Well…» He hesitated. He couldn't stand the idea of dressing his son in men's clothes. If, say, he could only find a very large boy's suit, he might cut off that long and awful beard, dye the white hair brown, then he would manage to hide the worst, and to keep his own self-respect – not to mention[14]his position in Baltimore society.

But there were no suits of his new-born son's size in the boys' department. He blamed the store, of course – in such cases one could blame only the store.

«How old did you say that boy of yours was?» demanded the clerk curiously.

«He's – sixteen».

«Oh, I beg your pardon. I thought you said six hours. You'll find the youths' department in the next room».

Mr. Button turned sadly away. Then he stopped, as he saw a dressed model in the window display. «There!» he pointed his finger toward the window display. «I'll take that suit, out there on the model».

The clerk stared. «Why», he protested, «that's not a child's suit. It's a fancy dress[15]. You could wear it yourself!»

«Wrap it up», insisted his customer nervously. «That's what I want».

The astonished clerk obeyed.

When Mr. Button came back to the hospital, he almost threw the package at his son. «Here are your clothes», he said angrily.

The old man opened the package and examined the dress with a puzzled look.

«It looks funny to me», he complained, «It will make a monkey of me…»

«You've made a monkey of me!» interrupted him Mr. Button. «Don't think how funny you look. Put them on – or I'll – or I'll spank you». He felt uneasy when he said the word but somehow he understood that it was the proper thing to say.

«All right, father, you've lived longer; you know best. Just as you say».

This sounded to Mr. Button as a grotesque respect from a son and the word «father» made him tremble.

«And hurry».

«I'm hurrying, father».

When his son was dressed Mr. Button examined him with depression. The costume consisted of pink pants and a blouse with a wide white collar. The long gray beard fell almost to the waist. The effect was not good.

«Wait!»

Mr. Button took hospital scissors and cut a large section of the beard. But even with this improvement the impression was far from perfect. The remaining part of the beard, the pale eyes, and the ancient teeth seemed strange in combination with the bright colors of the costume. Mr. Button, however, refused to change his plan – he held out his hand and said firmly. «Come along!»

His son took the hand. «What are you going to call me, dad?» he asked in a trembling voice as they walked from the hospital – «just ‘baby' for a while? till you think of a better name?»

«I don't know», grumbled Mr. Button. «I think we'll call you Methuselah[16]».