"Eddings, David - Regina's Song V2.0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Eddings David)

her field of study or a clinical description of Sylvia
herself. She's an Italian girl, cute as a button, but very
excitable."
"You're all alone here with two Swedes and an Italian?
You definitely need help, brother."
"Amen to that." He paused. "Do you happen to know
anything about auto mechanics?" he asked me then.
"Not so's you'd notice it. I can change a flat or replace
spark plugs if I have to, but that's about as far as it
goes. My solution to any other mechanical problem is to
reach for a bigger hammer. Does somebody have a sick
car?"
"All three girls do-or think they do. Auto mechanics
seem to turn into rip-off artists when a girl drives into
their shop. That's why these three want to have an in-
house mechanic. Last winter, Sylvia was ready to sue
General Motors because her car wasn't getting the kind
of mileage GM promised. I tried to explain that warming
the car up for an hour every morning might have had
something to do with it, but she kept insisting that as
long as the car wasn't moving, it shouldn't make any
difference."
"You're not serious!"
"Oh, yes. Sylvia has absolutely no idea at all about
what's going on under the hood of her car. She seems
to think that warming the car up to get the heater
running has no connection at all with putting it in gear
and driving it down the block. Every time I tried to
explain it, I ran into a solid wall of invincible ignorance."
He shook his head sadly. "Now that you're aware of
some of our peculiarities, are you at all interested in our
arrangement?"
"I wasn't really thinking about a room and board kind of
situation," I replied dubiously. "I keep irregular hours,
and I've been living on Big Macs for the past few years."
"Erika's likely to tell you that a steady diet of Big Macs
is the highway to heart surgery, Mark. The girls tend to
overmother everybody in the vicinity. And they scold-a
lot. You get used to that after a while. Nobody here is
really rolling in money, so the room and board's quite
reasonable. The food's good, and the girls take care of
the laundry. To get the benefits, though, you lose your
Saturdays. Saturday is national fix-up day around here.
If you're interested, I can show you around the place."
"Aren't the ladies here?"
"No. They're all off visiting before classes begin."
"I might as well have a look," I agreed.
"Come along, then," he said, starting toward the
antique front door with its small, ornate glass inserts.
"Are there any other house rules I should know