«Великий Гэтсби» и другие лучшие произведения Ф.С. Фицджеральда

’

The fact was infinitely astonishing to him, and I recognized first the unusual quality of wonder, and then the man – it was the late patron of Gatsby’s library.

�How’d it happen?’

He shrugged his shoulders.

�I know nothing whatever about mechanics,’ he said decisively.

�But how did it happen? Did you run into the wall?’

�Don’t ask me,’ said Owl Eyes, washing his hands of the whole matter. �I know very little about driving – next to nothing. It happened, and that’s all I know.

’

�Well, if you’re a poor driver you oughtn’t to try driving at night.’

�But I wasn’t even trying,’ he explained indignantly, �I wasn’t even trying.’

An awed hush fell upon the bystanders.

�Do you want to commit suicide?’

�You’re lucky it was just a wheel! A bad driver and not even trying!’

�You don’t understand,’ explained the criminal. �I wasn’t driving. There’s another man in the car.’

The shock that followed this declaration found voice in a sustained �Ah-h-h!’ as the door of the coupe swung slowly open.

The crowd – it was now a crowd – stepped back involuntarily, and when the door had opened wide there was a ghostly pause. Then, very gradually, part by part, a pale, dangling individual stepped out of the wreck, pawing tentatively at the ground with a large uncertain dancing shoe.

Blinded by the glare of the headlights and confused by the incessant groaning of the horns, the apparition stood swaying for a moment before he perceived the man in the duster.

�Wha’s matter?’ he inquired calmly. �Did we run outa gas?’

�Look!’

Half a dozen fingers pointed at the amputated wheel – he stared at it for a moment, and then looked upward as though he suspected that it had dropped from the sky.

�It came off,’ someone explained.

He nodded.

�At first I din’ notice we’d stopped.’

A pause. Then, taking a long breath and straightening his shoulders, he remarked in a determined voice:

�Wonder’ff tell me where there’s a gas’line station?’

At least a dozen men, some of them a little better off than he was, explained to him that wheel and car were no longer joined by any physical bond.

�Back out,’ he suggested after a moment. �Put her in reverse.’

�But the wheel’s off!’

He hesitated.

�No harm in trying,’ he said.