The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and Selected Tales of the Jazz Age Сollection. Адаптированная книга для чтения на английском языке. Уровень B1

When he came downstairs Hildegarde was waiting for him. She seemed irritated, and he wondered if she had at last discovered that there was something wrong with him. He made an effort to break the uneasiness between them when he mentioned the matter at dinner in what he considered a tactful way.

«Well», he remarked, «everybody says I look younger than ever».

Hildegarde looked at him scornfully and grumbled, «Do you think it's anything to boast about?»

«I'm not boasting», he said uncomfortably.

«I think you have enough dignity to stop it», she said after a moment.

«How can I?» he demanded.

«I'm not going to argue with you», she answered angrily. «But there's a right way of doing things and a wrong way. If you've made up your mind[39 - you've made up your mind – (идиом.) ты решил] to be different from everybody else, I don't suppose I can stop you, but I really don't think it's very tactful».

«But, Hildegarde, I can't help it[40 - I can't help it – (идиом.) Я ничего не могу c этим поделать]».

«Yes, you can. You're simply stubborn. You think you don't want to be like anyone else. You always have been that way, and you always will be. But just think how it would be if every one else looked at things as you do – what would the world be like?»

Benjamin thought there was no answer to that stupid argument and didn't say anything, and from that moment a misunderstanding between them began to grow. He wondered what possible charm she had ever had over him.

In addition to the breakup, he found, as the new century started, that his desire for amusements grew stronger. He was at every party of the city of Baltimore, danced with the prettiest of the young married women, chatted with the most popular of the debutantes[41 - debutante – (фр.) дебютантка, девушка из знатной или богатой семьи, впервые выезжающая в свет], and found their company charming, while his wife sat among other older women who came to watch their children, and now followed him in disapproval with jealous, puzzled, and scornful eyes.

«Look!» people remarked. «What a pity! A young fellow that age married to a woman of forty-five. He must be twenty years younger than his wife». They had forgotten – as people often forget – that back in 1880 their mothers and fathers had also remarked about this same strange couple.

Benjamin's growing unhappiness at home was compensated for by his many new interests. He started playing golf and made a great success of it. He started to enjoy dancing: in 1906 he was an expert at «The Boston», in 1908 he was the best at the «Maxixe», and in 1909 every young man in town was jealous of his «Castle Walk».[42 - The Boston, Maxixe, Castle Walk – модные в США в начале ХХ в. бальные танцы: вальс-бостон – американизированный вариант вальса, матчиш – «бразильское танго», касл уок – предшественник фокстрота, названный по имени родоначальников, семейной пары Касл]

His social life, of course, influenced his business partly, but he felt that after twenty-five years of hard work at wholesale hardware, he could soon hand it over to his son, Roscoe, who had recently graduated from Harvard.

He and his son were, in fact, often mistaken for each other. This pleased Benjamin – he soon forgot the secret fear which had come over him on his return from the Spanish-American War, and now took a natural pleasure in his appearance. There was only one fly in the ointment[43 - fly in the ointment – (идиом.) ложка дёгтя в бочке мёда] – he hated to appear in public with his wife. Hildegarde was almost fifty, and the sight of her made him feel absurd…

Chapter 9

One September day (a few years after Benjamin had handed Roger Button & Co., Wholesale Hardware, over to young Roscoe Button) a young man, about twenty years old, entered Harvard University in Cambridge as a freshman. He did not make the mistake of announcing that he was over fifty, he also didn't mention the fact that his son had graduated from the same institution ten years before.

He almost immediately got a leading position in the class, partly because he seemed a little older than the other freshmen, whose age was about eighteen.

But his real success was due to the fact that in the football game with Yale he played so well, with so much energy and with such a cold anger that he scored seven touchdowns[44 - touchdown – тачдаун, в американском футболе – пересечение мячом или игроком с мячом линии зачётного поля соперника, оценивается в шесть очков] and fourteen field goals for Harvard, and as a result eleven of Yale men were carried one by one from the field in despair. He became the most celebrated man in college.

Strangely enough[45 - strangely enough – (идиом.) как ни странно], in his third year he was hardly able to play football. Everybody noticed that he had become much thinner and was not quite as tall as before. He made no touchdowns – indeed, the team kept him only in hope that his enormous reputation would bring terror to the Yale team.

In his senior year he left the team. He had become so thin and weak that one day he was taken by some second year students for a freshman, an incident which humiliated him terribly. He became known as something of a prodigy – a senior who was surely no more than sixteen – and he was often shocked at the life experience of some of his classmates. His studies seemed harder to him – he felt that they were too difficult. He had heard his classmates speak of St. Midas's, the famous prep school, at which so many of them had prepared for college, and he made up his mind to enter St. Midas's after his graduation, where the life among boys his own size would be more natural and comfortable to him.

Upon his graduation in 1914 he went home to Baltimore with his Harvard diploma in his pocket. Hildegarde moved to Italy, so Benjamin went to stay with his son, Roscoe. But though he was welcomed there, Roscoe obviously had no warm feeling toward him – his son seemed irritated to see Benjamin, who was walking about the house in his sad youthful dreams. Roscoe was married now and had a good position in Baltimore life, and he wanted no scandal in connection with his family.

Benjamin was no longer persona grata[46 - persona grata – (лат.) персона грата, лицо, пользующееся особым вниманием, занимающее особое положение] with the debutantes and younger college men, he found himself alone, only three or four fifteen-year-old neighbor boys were his companions. His idea of going to St. Midas's school came back to him.

«Listen», he said to Roscoe one day, «I've told you over and over that I want to go to prep school».

«Well, go, then», answered Roscoe coldly. The matter was unpleasant to him, and he wished to avoid a discussion.

«I can't go alone», said Benjamin helplessly. «You'll have to take me up there».

«I have no time», declared Roscoe suddenly. He looked uneasily at his father. «As a matter of fact», he added, «you'd better stop[47 - you'd better stop – тебе следовало бы остановиться]. You'd better not go on with this business any longer. You'd better – better», he paused and his face turned red as he was trying to find words – «you'd better turn around and start back the other way. This has gone too far to be a joke. It isn't funny any longer. You – you behave yourself!»

Benjamin looked at him, close to tears.

«And another thing», continued Roscoe, «when visitors are in the house I want you to call me „Uncle“ – not „Roscoe,“

but „Uncle,“ do you understand? It looks absurd for a boy of fifteen to call me by my first name. Perhaps you'd better call me „Uncle“ all the time, so you'll get used to it[48 - so you'll get used to it – тогда быстрее привыкнешь]».

With an angry look at his father, Roscoe turned away…

Chapter 10

After this conversation Benjamin felt depressed, he walked upstairs and stared at himself in the mirror. He had not shaved for three months, but there was nothing on his face to shave. When he had first come home from Harvard, Roscoe had suggested that he should wear spectacles and false whiskers on his cheeks, and it had seemed for a moment that the grotesque comedy of his early years started to repeat. But whiskers made him feel both discomfort and shame. He burst into tears and Roscoe had to give it up.

Benjamin opened a book of boys' stories, The Boy Scouts in Bimini Bay, and began to read. But he found himself thinking about the war. America hadjoined the Allied forces,[49 - Allied forces – союзники, общее название членов коалиции государств, находившихся в состоянии войны с блоком так называемых Центральных держав (Германией, Австро-Венгрией и др.) во время Первой мировой войны] and Benjamin wanted to join the army too, but, alas, sixteen was the minimum age, and he looked much younger. His true age, which was fifty-seven, was too old for the army.

There was a knock at his door, and the man handed him an official letter addressed to Mr. Benjamin Button. Benjamin opened it, and read the text with delight. It informed him that many reserve officers who had served in the Spanish- American War were called back into service with a higher position, so he got his position as brigadier-general in the United States army with orders to report immediately.

Benjamin jumped to his feet trembling with enthusiasm. This was what he had wanted. Ten minutes later he entered a large tailor's shop on Charles Street, and asked in his high boy's voice to be measured for a uniform.

«Want to play soldier, sonny?» demanded a clerk casually.

Benjamin was furious. «Look here! Never mind what I want!» he protested angrily. «My name's Button and I live on Mt. Vernon Place, so you know I'm good for it[50 - I'm good for it – (идиом.) за мной не пропадёт, у меня хватит денег заплатить]».

«Well», admitted the clerk with hesitation, «if you're not, I guess your daddy is, all right».

Benjamin was measured, and a week later his uniform was ready. He had difficulty in getting the proper general's insignia because the dealer insisted that a nice badge would look just as well[51 - just as well – (идиом.) точно так же] and be much more fun to play with.

Saying nothing to Roscoe, he left the house one night and went by train to military camp, in South Carolina, where he was going to command a military brigade. On a hot April day he approached the entrance to the camp, paid the taxi driver who had brought him from the station, and turned to the guard.

«Get some one to carry my luggage!» he commanded.

The soldier looked at him with disbelief. «Say», he remarked, «where are you going with the general's stuff, sonny?»

Benjamin, veteran of the Spanish-American War, moved upon him with fire in his eye, but with, alas, a breaking boy's voice.

«Stand to attention!»[52 - stand to attention – (воен.) стоять по стойке смирно] he commanded loudly; he paused to take breath – then suddenly he saw that the soldier stood straight and brought his rifle to the present[53 - brought his rifle to the present – (воен.) привёл винтовку в положение «На караул»]. Benjamin hid a smile of satisfaction, but when he glanced around his smile faded. He saw an impressive colonel who was approaching on horseback.

«Colonel!» called Benjamin sharply.

The colonel came up and looked down at him. «Whose little boy are you?» he demanded kindly.

«I'll soon show you whose little boy I am!» protested Benjamin in an angry voice. «Get down off that horse!»

The colonel burst into laughter.

«You want my horse, eh, general?»