Английский язык с Крестным Отцом - Илья Франк

using the legal skills he had learned in a university, it seemed not so reprehensible

(предосудительный; to reprehend – делать выговор, порицать), and, in an odd way,

not even criminal.

To make a foolish story short, the fraud was discovered. The lawyer friend refused to

help Felix in any manner, refused to even answer his telephone calls. The two principals

(главные виновники) in the fraud, shrewd middle-aged businessmen who furiously

blamed Felix Bocchicchio's legal clumsiness (неуклюжесть, неловкость; clumsy –

неуклюжий, неловкий) for the plan going awry (окончился неудачей; awry [∂ ‘raı] –

кривой; косо, набок), pleaded guilty (признали себя виновными) and cooperated with

the state, naming Felix Bocchicchio as the ringleader (зачинщик) of the fraud and

claiming he had used threats of violence to control their business and force them to

cooperate with him in his fraudulent schemes. Testimony was given that linked Felix

with uncles and cousins in the Bocchicchio clan who had criminal records for strong-arm,

and this evidence was damning. The two businessmen got off with suspended

sentences. Felix Bocchicchio was given a sentence of one to five years and served

three of them. The clan did not ask help from any of the Families or Don Corleone

because Felix had refused to ask their help and had to be taught a lesson: that mercy

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comes only from the Family, that the Family is more loyal and more to be trusted than

society.

In any case, Felix Bocchicchio was released from prison after serving three years,

went home and kissed his wife and three children and lived peacefully for a year, and

then showed that he was of the Bocchicchio clan after all. Without any attempt to

conceal his guilt, he procured a weapon, a pistol, and shot his lawyer friend to death. He

then searched out the two businessmen and calmly shot them both through the head as

they came out of a luncheonette (закусочная, буфет ['lΛnt∫∂’net]). He left the bodies

lying in the street and went into the luncheonette and ordered a cup of coffee which he

drank while he waited for the police to come and arrest him.

His trial was swift and his judgment merciless. A member of the criminal underworld

had cold-bloodedly murdered state witnesses who had sent him to the prison he richly

deserved. It was a flagrant flouting (вопиющее глумление, выказывание презрения;

flagrant [‘fleıgr∂nt] – ужасающий, вопиющий; to flout – презирать, попирать,

глумиться) of society and for once the public, the press, the structure of society and

even soft-headed and soft-hearted humanitarians (гуманисты) were united in their

desire to see Felix Bocchicchio in the electric chair. The governor of the state would no

more grant him clemency (милость, помилование) than the officials of the pound

(загон /для скота/) spare a mad dog, which was the phrase of one of the governor's

closest political aides. The Bocchicchio clan of course would spend whatever money

was needed for appeals to higher courts, they were proud of him now, but the

conclusion was certain. After the legal folderol (= folderal – бессмысленная болтовня),

which might take a little time, Felix Bocchicchio would die in the electric chair.

It was Hagen who brought this case to the attention of the Don at the request of one

of the Bocchicchios who hoped that something could be done for the young man. Don

Corleone curtly refused. He was not a magician. People asked him the impossible. But

the next day the Don called Hagen into his office and had him go over the case in the

most intimate detail. When Hagen was finished, Don Corleone told him to summon the

head of the Bocchicchio clan to the mall for a meeting.

What happened next had the simplicity of genius. Don Corleone guaranteed to the

head of the Bocchicchio clan that the wife and children of Felix Bocchicchio would be

rewarded with a handsome pension. The money for this would be handed over to the

Bocchicchio clan immediately. In turn, Felix must confess to the murder of Sollozzo and

the police captain McCluskey.

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There were many details to be arranged. Felix Bocchicchio would have to confess

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convincingly, that is, he would have to know some of the true details to confess to. Also

he must implicate (вовлекать, впутывать) the police captain in narcotics. Then the

waiter at the Luna Restaurant must be persuaded to identify Felix Bocchicchio as the

murderer. This would take some courage, as the description would change radically,

Felix Bocchicchio being much shorter and heavier. But Don Corleone would attend to

that. Also since the condemned man had been a great believer in higher education and

a college graduate, he would want his children to go to college. And so a sum of money

would have to be paid by Don Corleone that would take care of the children's college.

Then the Bocchicchio clan had to be reassured that there was no hope for clemency on

the original murders. The new confession of course would seal the man's already

almost certain doom (рок, судьба; осуждение, приговор).

Everything was arranged, the money paid and suitable contact made with the

condemned man so that he could be instructed and advised. Finally the plan was

sprung and the confession made headlines in all the newspapers. The whole thing was

a huge success. But Don Corleone, cautious as always, waited until Felix Bocchicchio

was actually executed four months later before finally giving the command that Michael

Corleone could return home.

Сhapter 22

Lucy Mancini, a year after Sonny's death, still missed him terribly, grieved for him

more fiercely than any lover in any romance. And her dreams were not the insipid

(безвкусный, пресный; вялый, неинтересный [ın'sıpıd]) dreams of a schoolgirl, her

longings (сильные, страстные желания, стремления; to long – страстно желать,

стремиться) not the longing of a devoted wife. She was not rendered desolate by the

loss of her "life's companion," or miss him because of his stalwart (стойкий, верный,

решительный ['sto:lw∂t]) character. She held no fond remembrances of sentimental

gifts, of girlish hero worship, his smile, the amused glint of his eyes when she said

something endearing (to endear [ın’dı∂] – заставить полюбить, внушить любовь) or

witty.

No. She missed him for the more important reason that he had been the only man in

the world who could make her body achieve the act of love. And, in her youth and

innocence, she still believed that he was the only man who could possibly do so.

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Now a year later she sunned herself in the balmy Nevada air. At her feet the slender,

blond young man was playing with her toes. They were at the side of the hotel pool for

the Sunday afternoon and despite the people all around them his hand was sliding up

her bare thigh.

"Oh, Jules, stop," Lucy said. "I thought doctors at least weren't as silly as other men."

Jules grinned at her. "I'm a Las Vegas doctor." He tickled the inside of her thigh and

was amazed how just a little thing like that could excite her so powerfully. It showed on

her face though she tried to hide it. She was really a very primitive, innocent girl. Then

why couldn't he make her come across (признаться, все выложить)? He had to figure

that one out and never mind the crap about a lost love that could never be replaced.

This was living tissue here under his hand and living tissue required other living tissue.

Dr. Jules Segal decided he would make the big push tonight at his apartment. He'd

wanted to make her come across without any trickery but if trickery there had to be, he

was the man for it. All in the interests of science of course. And, besides, this poor kid

was dying for it.

"Jules, stop, please stop," Lucy said. Her voice was trembling.

Jules was immediately contrite (сокрушающийся, кающийся ['kontraıt]). "OK, honey,"

he said. He put his head in her lap and using her soft thighs as a pillow, he took a little

nap. He was amused at her squirming (to squirm – извиваться, корчиться;

чувствовать неловкость, смущение), the heat that registered from her loins and when

she put her hand on his head to smooth his hair, he grasped her wrist playfully and held

it loverlike but really to feel her pulse. It was galloping. He'd get her tonight and he'd

solve the mystery, what the hell ever it was. Fully confident, Dr. Jules Segal fell asleep.

Lucy watched the people around the pool. She could never have imagined her life

would change so in less than two years. She never regretted her "foolishness" at

Connie Corleone's wedding. It was the most wonderful thing that had ever happened to

her and she lived it over and over again in her dreams. As she lived over and over again

the months that followed.

Sonny had visited her once a week, sometimes more, never less. The days before

she saw him again her body was in torment (мука ['to:m∂nt]). Their passion for each

other was of the most elementary kind, undiluted (to dilute [‘daılju:t] – разжижать,

разбавлять) by poetry or any form of intellectualism. It was love of the coarsest nature,

a fleshly love, a love of tissue for opposing tissue.

When Sonny called to her he was coming she made certain there was enough liquor

in the apartment and enough food for supper and breakfast because usually he would

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not leave until late the next morning. He wanted his fill (хотел насытиться) of her as

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she wanted her fill of him. He had his own key and when he came in the door she would

fly into his massive arms. They would both be brutally direct, brutally primitive. During

their first kiss they would be fumbling at each other's clothing and he would be lifting her

in the air, and she would be wrapping her legs around his huge thighs. They would be

making love standing up in the foyer of her apartment as if they had to repeat their first

act of love together, and then he would carry her so to the bedroom.

They would lie in bed making love. They would live together in the apartment for

sixteen hours, completely naked. She would cook for him, enormous meals. Somtimes

he would get phone calls obviously about business but she never even listened to the

words. She would be too busy toying with his body, fondling it, kissing it, burying her

mouth in it. Sometimes when he got up to get a drink and he walked by her, she

couldn't help reaching out to touch his naked body, hold him, make love to him as if

those special parts of his body were a plaything, a specially constructed, intricate

(запутанный, замысловатый, сложный ['ıntrıkıt]) but innocent toy revealing its known,

but still surprising ecstasies. At first she had been ashamed of these excesses on her

part but soon saw that they pleased her lover, that her complete sensual enslavement

to his body flattered him. In all this there was an animal innocence. They were happy

together.

When Sonny's father was gunned down in the street, she understood for the first time

that her lover might be in danger. Alone in her apartment, she did not weep, she wailed

aloud, an animal wailing (to wail – вопить, выть). When Sonny did not come to see her

for almost three weeks she subsisted on sleeping pills, liquor and her own anguish

(мука, боль, острая тоска). The pain she felt was physical pain, her body ached. When

he finally did come she held on to his body at almost every moment. After that he came

at least once a week until he was killed.

She learned of his death through the newspaper accounts and that very same night

she took a massive overdose of sleeping pills. For some reason, instead of killing, the

pills made her so ill that she staggered out into the hall of her apartment and collapsed

in front of the elevator door where she was found and taken to the hospital. Her

relationship to Sonny was not generally known so her case received only a few inches

in the tabloid (малоформатная газета со сжатым текстом; бульварная газета)

newspapers.

It was while she was in the hospital that Tom Hagen came to see her and console her.

It was Tom Hagen who arranged a job for her in Las Vegas working in the hotel run by

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Sonny's brother Freddie. It was Tom Hagen who told her that she would receive an

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annuity (ежегодная рента [∂'nju:ıtı]) from the Corleone Family, that Sonny had made

provisions for her. He had asked her if she was pregnant, as if that were the reason for

her taking the pills and she had told him no. He asked her if Sonny had come to see her

that fatal night or had called that he would come to see her and she told him no, that

Sonny had not called. That she was always home waiting for him when she finished

working. And she had told Hagen the truth. "He's the only man I could ever love," she

said. "I can't love anybody else." She saw him smile a little but he also looked surprised.

"Do you find that so unbelievable?" she asked. "Wasn't he the one who brought you

home when you were a kid?"

"He was a different person," Hagen said, "he grew up to be a different kind of man."

"Not to me," Lucy said. "Maybe to everybody else, but not to me." She was still too

weak to explain how Sonny had never been anything but gentle with her. He'd never