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Английский язык / Re: News
« : 10 Август 2022, 16:35:40 »Thunderbolt (adapted)
Thunderbolt (adapted)
It was a little palace with a huge marble bridge and Greek columns. A small group of teenage village girls were walking through these columns surrounded by two matrons dressed in black. They were gathering some pink and purple flowers, mixing them with orange and lemon blossoms. The girls, not seeing the men resting in the orange grove, came closer and closer.
They were wearing cheap bright dresses. Three or four of them started running after one girl, who was holding a bunch of huge purple grapes in her left hand and with her right hand was picking grapes and throwing them at other ladies. She had a bunch of beautiful hair as purple-black as the grapes she was throwing.
Just in front of the grove she stopped when her eyes caught the colour of the men’s shirts. She stood there up on her feet like a deer, ready to run. She was so incredibly lovely that Fabrizzio said, “Jesus Christ, take my soul, I’m dying,” as a joke, but the words came out in a rude way. As if she had heard him, the girl turned around and ran away from them back to her friends. When she reached them, she pointed toward the grove. The girls ran away laughing, with the matrons in black following them.
***
Michael Corleone was standing, his heart pounding in his chest; feeling a little dizzy. The blood was going through his body to his fingers and toes. All the perfumes of the island were in the air: orange, lemon blossoms, grapes, flowers. It looked as if his body was going to jump out of himself. And then he heard the two shepherds laughing.
“You got hit by the thunderbolt, eh?” Fabrizzio said and clapped him on the shoulder. Even Calo became friendly, patting him on the arm and saying, “Easy, man, easy,”. Michael felt as if he had been hit by a car. “What the hell are you sheep lovers talking about?” he said.
Both men laughed. Calo, being absolutely serious, said, “You can’t hide the thunderbolt. When it hits you, everybody can see it. Don’t be ashamed of it, many men pray for the thunderbolt. You’re a lucky man.”
Michael wasn’t too pleased that it was so easy to read his emotions. But this was the first time in his life such a thing had happened to him. His life became simple, focused on one point, everything else was not important.
Fabrizzio said “I’ll go to the village, we’ll find out about her. Who knows, she may be more available than we think. There’s only one medicine for the thunderbolt, eh, Calo?”
The other shepherd agreed. Michael didn’t say anything. He followed the two shepherds as they were going along the road to the nearby village into which the group of girls had disappeared.
First Meeting with Parents (adapted)
First Meeting with Apollonia’s Parents (adapted)
Michael entered the cafe in the village with his two companions Calo and Fabrizzio and asked the man at the counter, “Do you know a girl with her hair all curly? Very creamy skin, very big eyes, very dark eyes. Do you know a girl like that in the village?”
The cafe owner said politely, “No. I don’t know any girl like that.” He disappeared back into his cafe.
The three men drank their wine slowly, and called for more. The owner did not reappear. Fabrizzio went into the cafe after him. Fabrizzio came out and said to Michael, “Just as I thought, it’s his daughter we were talking about and now he’s in the back trying to invent something bad for us. I think we’d better start walking toward Corleone.”
Michael looked at him coldly. Before this moment he had been a quiet, gentle young man, a typical American. But this time he was different. When he saw his companions had their complete attention Michael said to them, “Get that man out here to me.”
A few seconds later they reappeared with the cafe owner between them. The old man didn't look afraid but he was really angry.
Michael sat back in his chair and studied the man for a moment. Then he said very quietly, “I understand I’ve offended you by talking about your daughter. I am sorry,but I’m a stranger in this country, i don’t know the customs very well. I didn't want to disrespect you or her.”
I was clear to the cafe owner that he was not dealing with some farmboy. “Who are you and what do you want from my daughter?” he asked.
***
Michael asnwered, “ My name is Michael. I am an American hiding in Sicily, from the police of my country. You can inform the police but then your daughter will lose a father and not gain a husband. I’m an honorable man and I don’t think of dishonoring your daughter. I want to meet her, talk to her and then if we fall in love, we’ll marry. If not, you’ll never see me again.
By Saturday, Michael had an Alfa Romeo,not in good condition but ready to go. He had also made a bus trip to Palermo to buy presents for the girl and her family. He had learned that the girl’s name was Apollonia and every night he thought of her lovely face and her lovely name. Michael had also bought himself some new clothes in Palermo and that made him look like a Don of some kind.
He drove the Alfa Romeo to the village and parked it just outside the cafe. Calo and Fabrizzio were in the back seat with their luparas and Michael told them to wait in the cafe and not to come to the house. The cafe was closed but Vitelli was there waiting for them on the terrace.
They shook hands all around and Michael took the three packages, the presents, and went up the hill with Vitelli to his home. When they arrived, Michael gave Signor Vitelli and Signora Vitelli their presents. For the father it was a gold cigar-cutter, for the mother a finest cloth that could be bought in Palermo. He still had one package for the girl.
Proposal and Marriage (adapted)
Proposal and Marriage (adapted)
When inside the house, Michael saw the girl standing in the arched doorway of the house. At this moment he understood he really wanted to marry her.
Michael looked directly at her and her lovely face. He said, not daring to speak her name, “I saw you by the orange gardens the other day. When you ran away. I hope I didn’t frighten you?”
The girl looked at him for just a second. She shook her head. But the loveliness of those eyes had made Michael look away. Michael gave her the present wrapped in gold paper and the girl put it in her hands. The father said, “Open it, girl,” but her hands did not move, so her mother had to open it.
It was a heavy gold chain to put on the neck, and it shocked the family because a gift of gold in this society was a very expensive one.
Apollonia didn't touch her present, but looked at Michael and said, “Grazie.” It was the first time he heard her voice.
Finally Michael and Apollonia's parents said their good-byes and the father walked down the hill with him to his car and invited him to Sunday dinner the next week. Michael agreed but he knew he couldn’t wait a week to see the girl again.
***
He didn’t. The next day, without his shepherds, he drove to the village and sat on the garden terrace of the cafe to chat with her father. Signor Vitelli wanted to help him and sent for his wife and daughter to come down to the cafe to join them. This meeting was less stressful. The girl Apollonia wasn't so shy, and spoke more. She was wearing her everyday print dress which made her look brilliant.
The next day the same thing happened. Only this time Apollonia was wearing the gold chain he had given her. He smiled, because he knew this was a signal to him. He walked with her up the hill, her mother close behind them. But it was impossible for the two young people not to touch each other and once Apollonia fell against him, he had to hold her. They could not see the mother behind them smiling because her daughter has never fallen down on this path before.
This went on for two weeks. Michael brought her presents every time he came and gradually she became less shy. She was just a village girl, with no idea of the world, but Michael was greatly interested in her. Everything happened very quickly. The girl was not only in love with him but knew he must be rich, so a wedding date was set for the Sunday two weeks away.
The Explosion (adapted)
The Explosion (adapted)
The Sicilian sun filled Michael’s bedroom. This was the last morning Michael and Apollonia would spend in this house and the villa. Don Tommasino decided that they should go to another town on the southern coast of Sicily because staying in the same house could be dangerous for their safety. Apollonia wanted to visit her family for a few weeks and would join him at the new hiding place after the visit.
Don Tommasino had told Michael that the two shepherds, Fabrizzio and Calo, would go with him as bodyguards in the Alfa Romeo. Michael knew Don Tommasino was in trouble. Armed guards patrolled the walls of the villa at night and shepherds with their guns were always in the house. Don Tommasino himself was heavily armed and a personal bodyguard was with him all the time.
The morning sun was now too strong. Michael looked out his bedroom window and saw Fabrizzio sitting in one of the garden chairs.
“Get the car,” Michael called down to him. “I’ll be leaving in five minutes. Where’s Calo?”
Fabrizzio stood up. “Calo is having a cup of coffee in the kitchen,” he said. “Is your wife coming with you?”
"No," Michael said coldly, “She’s going home to her family first, she’ll join us in a few days.” He watched Fabrizzio hurry into the garage for the Alfa Romeo.
***
When Michael left the house, he saw Apollonia already sitting in the driver’s seat of the car, dying to step on the gas.
"She’ll be a real American woman before she gets to America.” Calo said.
Women from villages never drove cars. But Michael sometimes let Apollonia guide the Alfa Romeo around the villa, always staying near her because she sometimes stepped on the gas when she wanted to step on the brake.
Apollonia was sitting in the car, her hands on the wheel. Calo was just putting the lunch basket in the car. And then Michael was surprised to see Fabrizzio running through the gates of the villa. What the hell was he doing?
Apollonia waved to him from the car and then he realized she wanted him to stay where he was, that she meant to drive the car to where he stood. Calo stood smiling beside the car but there was no sign of Fabrizzio.
At that moment everything came together in his mind, and Michael shouted to the girl, “No! No!” But his shout vanished in the terrible explosion when Apollonia stepped on the gas. The kitchen door was completely destroyed and Michael was thrown away for a good ten feet. Before losing his senses Michael saw that nothing remained of the Alfa Romeo but its four wheels and the steel shafts which held them together.