标题: 《The Man With English 》作者：- H. L. Gold【EPUB】 [打印本页] 作者: zaq 时间: 2014-2-18 08:59 标题: 《The Man With English 》作者：- H. L. Gold【EPUB】 THE MAN WITH ENGLISH Lying in the hospital, Edgar Stone added up his misfortunes as another might count blessings. There were enough to infuriate the most temperate man, which Stone notoriously was not. He smashed his fist down, accidentally hitting the metal side of the bed, and was astonished by the pleasant feeling. It enraged him even more. The really maddening thing was how simply he had goaded himself into the hospital. He'd locked up his drygoods store and driven home for lunch. Nothing unusual about that; he did it every day. With his miserable digestion, he couldn't stand the restaurant food in town. He pulled into the driveway, rode over a collection of metal shapes his son Arnold had left lying around, and punctured a tire. "Rita!" he yelled. "This is going too damned far! Where is that brat?" "In here," she called truculently from the kitchen. He kicked open the screen door. His foot went through the mesh, "A ripped tire and a torn screen!" he shouted at Arnold, who was sprawled in angular adolescence over a blueprint on the kitchen table. "You'll pay for them, by God! They're coming out of your allowance!" "I'm sorry. Pop," the boy said. "Sorry, my left foot," Mrs. Stone shrieked. She whirled on her husband. "You could have watched where you were going. He promised to clean up his things from the driveway right after lunch. And it's about time you stopped kicking open the door every time you're mad." "Mad? Who wouldn't be mad? Me hoping he'd get out of school and come into the store, and he wants to be an engineer. An engineer and he can't even make change when he—hah!—helps me out in the store!" "He'll be whatever he wants to be," she screamed in the conversational tone of the Stone household. "Please," said Arnold. "I can't concentrate on this plan."