"H. L. Gold - Man With English" - читать интересную книгу автора (Gold H. L)

Lying in the hospital, Edgar Stone added up his misfor-
tunes as another might count blessings. There were enough
to infuriate the most temperate man, which Stone notori-
ously was not. He smashed his fist down, accidentally hit-
ting the metal side of the bed, and was astonished by the
pleasant feeling. It enraged him even more. The really mad-
dening 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 restau-
rant food in town. He pulled into the driveway, rode over
a collection of metal shapes his son Amold had left lying
around, and punctured a tire.
"Rital" he yelled. "This is going too damned farl 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 drive-
way right after lunch. And it's about time you stopped kick-
ing 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 engineerand he can't even make change
when hehahlhelps 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."
Edgar Stone was never one to restrain an angry impulse.
He tore up the blueprint and flung the pieces down on the
table.
"Aw, Pop," the boy said.
"Don't say 'Aw, Pop' to me. You're not going to waste
a summer vacation on junk like this. You'll eat your lunch
and come down to the store. And youll do it every day for
the rest of the summer!"
"Oh, he will, will he?" demanded Mrs. Stone. "He'll catch
up on his studies. And as for you, you can go back and eat
in a restaurant."
"You know I can't stand that slopi"
"You'll eat it because you're not having lunch here any