Читать книгу Fleeting Snow - Pavel Villikovsky - Страница 30

5.c

It took me a long time to realise what was going on. It annoyed me that at some point she developed a kind of verbal tic she had not needed before and took to starting each sentence with ‘Hang on’. On top of that she would often repeat something I had said as if she were hard of hearing – for example, I would tell her that Štefan had had a book published in America and her response would be: ‘Hang on, he had a book published in America?’ What an unpleasant and irritating habit, I thought, where did she pick it up? It seemed to forcibly tighten the reins on a freewheeling conversation, make my thoughts wander off and, disconcerted, I would no longer feel like resuming the conversation.

‘Hang on, so you won’t be home for lunch?’ ‘That’s right, I won’t, but I’ve already told you that, haven’t I?’ What was there to think about? What was there to hang on to? It made no sense to me.