The Godfather 16 страница

to his body flattered him. In all this there was an animal innocence. They were happy

together.

When Sonny's father was gunned down in the street, she understood for the first time

that her lover might be in danger. Alone in her apartment, she did not weep, she wailed

aloud, an animal wailing (to wail – вопить, выть). When Sonny did not come to see her

for almost three weeks she subsisted on sleeping pills, liquor and her own anguish

(мука, боль, острая тоска). The pain she felt was physical pain, her body ached. When

he finally did come she held on to his body at almost every moment. After that he came

at least once a week until he was killed.

She learned of his death through the newspaper accounts and that very same night

she took a massive overdose of sleeping pills. For some reason, instead of killing, the

pills made her so ill that she staggered out into the hall of her apartment and collapsed

in front of the elevator door where she was found and taken to the hospital. Her

relationship to Sonny was not generally known so her case received only a few inches

in the tabloid (малоформатная газета со сжатым текстом; бульварная газета)

newspapers.

It was while she was in the hospital that Tom Hagen came to see her and console her.

It was Tom Hagen who arranged a job for her in Las Vegas working in the hotel run by

Sonny's brother Freddie. It was Tom Hagen who told her that she would receive an

annuity (ежегодная рента [∂'nju:ıtı]) from the Corleone Family, that Sonny had made

provisions for her. He had asked her if she was pregnant, as if that were the reason for

her taking the pills and she had told him no. He asked her if Sonny had come to see her

that fatal night or had called that he would come to see her and she told him no, that

Sonny had not called. That she was always home waiting for him when she finished

working. And she had told Hagen the truth. "He's the only man I could ever love," she

said. "I can't love anybody else." She saw him smile a little but he also looked surprised.

"Do you find that so unbelievable?" she asked. "Wasn't he the one who brought you

home when you were a kid?"

"He was a different person," Hagen said, "he grew up to be a different kind of man."

"Not to me," Lucy said. "Maybe to everybody else, but not to me." She was still too

weak to explain how Sonny had never been anything but gentle with her. He'd never

been angry with her, never even irritable or nervous.

Hagen made all the arrangements for her to move to Las Vegas. A rented apartment

was waiting, he took her to the airport himself and he made her promise that if she ever

felt lonely or if things didn't go right, she would call him and he would help her in any

way he could.

Before she got on the plane she asked him hesitantly, "Does Sonny's father know

what you're doing?"

Hagen smiled, "I'm acting for him as well as myself. He's old-fashioned in these things

and he would never go against the legal wife of his son. But he feels that you were just

a young girl and Sonny should have known better. And your taking all those pills shook

everybody up." He didn't explain how incredible it was to a man like the Don that any

person should try suicide.

Now, after nearly eighteen months in Las Vegas, she was surprised to find herself

almost happy. Some nights she dreamed about Sonny and lying awake before dawn

continued her dream with her own caresses until she could sleep again. She had not

had a man since. But the life in Vegas agreed with her. She went swimming in the hotel

pools, sailed on Lake Mead and drove through the desert on her day off. She became

thinner and this improved her figure. She was still voluptuous but more in the American

than the old Italian style. She worked in the public relations section of the hotel as a

receptionist and had nothing to do with Freddie though when he saw her he would stop

and chat a little. She was surprised at the change in Freddie. He had become a ladies'

man, dressed beautifully, and seemed to have a real flair (чутье) for running a gambling

134

resort. He controlled the hotel side, something not usually done by casino owners. With

the long, very hot summer seasons, or perhaps his more active sex life, he too had

become thinner and Hollywood tailoring made him look almost debonair

(жизнерадостный, веселый [deb∂’nε∂]) in a deadly sort of way.

It was after six months that Tom Hagen came out to see how she was doing. She had

been receiving a check for six hundred dollars a month, every month, in addition to her

salary. Hagen explained that this money had to be shown as coming from some place

and asked her to sign complete powers of attorney so that he could channel the money

properly. He also told her that as a matter of form she would be listed as owner of five

"points" in the hotel in which she worked. She would have to go through all the legal

formalities required by the Nevada laws but everything would be taken care of for her

and her own personal inconvenience would be at a minimum. However she was not to

discuss this arrangement with anyone without his consent. She would be protected

legally in every way and her money every month would be assured. If the authorities or

any law-enforcement (enforcement – давление, принуждение; принудительный)

agencies ever questioned her, she was to simply refer them to her lawyer and she

would not be bothered any further.

Lucy agreed. She understood what was happening but had no objections to how she

was being used. It seemed a reasonable favor. But when Hagen asked her to keep her

eyes open around the hotel, keep an eye on Freddie and on Freddie's boss, the man

who owned and operated the hotel, as a major stockholder (акционер), she said to him,

"Oh, Tom, you don't want me to spy on Freddie?"

Hagen smiled. "His father worries about Freddie. He's in fast company with Moe

Greene and we just want to make sure he doesn't get into any trouble." He didn't bother

to explain to her that the Don had backed the building of this hotel in the desert of Las

Vegas not only to supply a haven for his son, but to get a foot in the door for bigger

operations.

It was shortly after this interview that Dr. Jules Segal came to work as the hotel

physician. He was very thin, very handsome and charming and seemed very young to

be a doctor, at least to Lucy. She met him when a lump (опухоль, шишка) grew above

her wrist on her forearm. She worried about it for a few days, then one morning went to

the doctor's suite of offices in the hotel. Two of the show girls from the chorus line were

in the waiting room, gossiping with each other. They had the blond peach-colored

prettiness Lucy always envied. They looked angelic. But one of the girls was saying, "I

swear if I have another dose I'm giving up dancing."

135

When Dr. Jules Segal opened his office door to motion one of the show girls inside,

Lucy was tempted to leave, and if it had been something more personal and serious she

would have. Dr. Segal was wearing slacks (широкие брюки) and an open shirt. The

horn-rimmed glasses helped and his quiet reserved manner, but the impression he gave

was an informal one, and like many basically old-fashioned people, Lucy didn't believe

that medicine and informality mixed.

When she finally got into his office there was something so reassuring in his manner

that all her misgivings fled. He spoke hardly at all and yet he was not brusque, and he

took his time. When she asked him what the lump was he patiently explained that it was

a quite common fibrous (волокнистый, фиброзный ['faıbr∂ s]) growth that could in no

way be malignant (злокачественный [m∂’lıgn∂nt]) or a cause for serious concern. He

picked up a heavy medical book and said, "Hold out your arm."

She held out her arm tentatively (неуверенно; tentative ['tent∂tıv] – пробный,

опытный). He smiled at her for the first time. "I'm going to cheat myself out of a surgical

fee," he said. "I'll just smash it with this book and it will flatten out. It may pop up again

but if I remove it surgically, you'll be out of money and have to wear bandages and all

that. OK?"

She smiled at him. For some reason she had an absolute trust in him. "OK," she said.

In the next instant she let out a yell as he brought down the heavy medical volume on

her forearm. The lump had flattened out, almost.

"Did it hurt that much?" he asked.

"No," she said. She watched him completing her case history card. "Is that all?"

He nodded, not paying any more attention to her. She left.

A week later he saw her in the coffee shop and sat next to her at the counter. "How's

the arm?" he asked.

She smiled at him. "Fine," she said. "You're pretty unorthodox but you're pretty good."

He grinned at her. "You don't know how unorthodox I am. And I didn't know how rich

you were. The Vegas Sun just published the list of point owners in the hotel and Lucy

Mancini has a big ten points. I could have made a fortune on that little bump (опухоль,

шишка)."

She didn't answer him, suddenly reminded of Hagen's warnings. He grinned again.

"Don't worry, I know the score (я прекрасно понимаю ситуацию; score – зарубка,

метка), you're just one of the dummies (одна из дурочек; dummy – кукла, чучело;

манекен; марионетка; дурачок, дурочка), Vegas is full of them. How about seeing one

of the shows with me tonight and I'll buy you dinner. I'll even buy you some roulette

chips."

She was a little doubtful. He urged her. Finally she said, "I'd like to come but I'm afraid

you might be disappointed by how the night ends. I'm not really a swinger like most of

the girls here in Vegas."

"That's why I asked you," Jules said cheerfully. "I've prescribed a night's rest for

myself."

Lucy smiled at him and said a little sadly, "Is it that obvious?" He shook his head and

she said, "OK, supper then, but I'll buy my own roulette chips."

They went to the supper show and Jules kept her amused by describing different

types of bare thighs and breasts in medical terms; but without sneering, all in good

humor. Afterward they played roulette together at the same wheel and won over a

hundred dollars. Still later they drove up to Boulder Dam in the moonlight and he tried to

make love to her but when she resisted after a few kisses he knew that she really meant

no and stopped. Again he took his defeat with great good humor. "I told you I wouldn't,"

Lucy said with half-guilty reproach.

"You would have been awfully insulted if I didn't even try," Jules said. And she had to

laugh because it was true.

The next few months they became best friends. It wasn't love because they didn't

make love, Lucy wouldn't let him. She could see he was puzzled by her refusal but not

hurt the way most men would be and that made her trust him even more. She found out

that beneath his professional doctor's exterior he was wildly fun-loving and reckless. On

weekends he drove a souped-up MG (to soup up – увеличивать мощность

/двигателя/ [su:p]) in the California races. When he took a vacation he went down into

the interior of Mexico, the real wild country, he told her, where strangers were murdered

for their shoes and life was as primitive as a thousand years ago. Quite accidentally she

learned that he was a surgeon and had been connected with a famous hospital in New

York.

All this made her more puzzled than ever at his having taken the job at the hotel.

When she asked him about it, Jules said, "You tell me your dark secret and I'll tell you

mine."

She blushed and let the matter drop. Jules didn't pursue it either and their relationship

continued, a warm friendship that she counted on more than she realized.

Now, sitting at the side of the pool with Jules' blond head in her lap, she felt an

overwhelming tenderness for him. Her loins ached and without realizing it her fingers

sensuously stroked the skin of his neck. He seemed to be sleeping, not noticing, and

she became excited just by the feel of him against her. Suddenly he raised his head

from her lap and stood up. He took her by the hand and led her over the grass on to the

cement walk. She followed him dutifully even when he led her into one of the cottages

that held his private apartment. When they were inside he

fixed them both big drinks. After the blazing sun and her own sensuous thoughts the

drink went to her head and made her dizzy. Then Jules had his arms around her and

their bodies, naked except for scanty bathing suits, were pressed against each other.

Lucy was murmuring, "Don't," but there was no conviction in her voice and Jules paid no

attention to her. He quickly stripped her bathing bra off so that he could fondle her

heavy breasts, kissed them and then stripped off her bathing trunks and as he did so

kept kissing her body, her rounded belly and the insides of her thighs. He stood up,

struggling out of his own bathing shorts and embracing her, and then, naked in each

other's arms, they were lying on his bed and she could feel him entering her and it was

enough, just the slight touch, for her to reach her climax and then in the second

afterward she could read in the motions of his body, his surprise. She felt the

overwhelming shame she had felt before she knew Sonny, but Jules was twisting her

body over the edge of the bed, positioning her legs a certain way and she let him control

her limbs and her body, and then he was entering her again and kissing her and this

time she could feel him but more important she could tell that he was feeling something

too and coming to his climax.

When he rolled off her body, Lucy huddled into one corner of the bed and began to

cry. She felt so ashamed. And then she was shockingly surprised to hear Jules laugh

softly and say, "You poor benighted (застигнутый ночью; погруженный во мрак

/невежества/) Eye-talian girl, so that's why you kept refusing me all these months? You

dope (дурочка)." He said "you dope" with such friendly affection that she turned toward

him and he took her naked body against his saying, "You are medieval, you are

positively medieval." But the voice was soothingly comforting as she continued to weep.

Jules lit a cigarette and put it in her mouth so that she choked on the smoke and had

to stop crying. "Now listen to me," he said, "if you had had a decent modern raising with

a family culture that was part of the twentieth century your problem would have been

solved years ago. Now let me tell you what your problem is: it's not the equivalent of

being ugly, of having bad skin and squinty (косой, косоглазый; to squint – косить

138

глазами) eyes that facial surgery really doesn't solve. Your problem is like having a wart

(бородавка [wo:t]) or a mole (родинка) on your chin, or an improperly formed ear. Stop

thinking of it in sexual terms. Stop thinking in your head that you have a big box no man

can love because it won't give his penis the necessary friction. What you have is a

pelvic (тазовый) malformation (неправильное образование, порок развития) and

what we surgeons call a weakening of the pelvic floor. It usually comes after child-

bearing but it can be simply bad bone structure. It's a common condition and many

women live a life of misery because of it when a simple operation could fix them up.

Some women even commit suicide because of it. But I never figured you for that

condition because you have such a beautiful body. I thought it was psychological, since

I know your story, you told it to me often enough, you and Sonny. But let me give you a

thorough physical examination and I can tell you just exactly how much work will have

to be done. Now go in and take a shower."

Lucy went in and took her shower. Patiently and over her protests, Jules made her lie

on the bed, legs spread apart. He had an extra doctor's bag in his apartment and it was

open. He also had a small glass-topped table by the bed which held some other

instruments. He was all business now, examining her, sticking his fingers inside her and

moving them around. She was beginning to feel humiliated when he kissed her on the

navel and said, almost absent-mindedly, "First time I've enjoyed my work." Then he

flipped her over and thrust a finger in her rectum, feeling around, but his other hand was

stroking her neck affectionately. When he was finished he turned her right side up again,

kissed her tenderly on the mouth and said, "Baby, I'm going to build you a whole new

thing down there, and then I'll try it out personally. It will be a medical first, I'll be able to

write a paper on it for the official journals."

Jules did everything with such good-humored affection, he so obviously cared for her,

that Lucy got over her shame and embarrassment. He even had the medical textbook

down off its shelf to show her a case like her own and the surgical procedure to correct

it. She found herself quite interested.

"It's a health thing too," Jules said. "If you don't get it corrected you're going to have a

hell of a lot of trouble later on with your whole plumbing system (водопроводная

система; plumb [plΛm] – отвес; лот, грузило). The structure becomes progressively

weaker unless it's corrected by surgery. It's a damn shame that old-fashioned prudery

([‘pru:d∂rı] – излишняя или притворная стыдливость) keeps a lot of doctors from

properly diagnosing and correcting the situation, and a lot of women from complaining

about it."

"Don't talk about it, please don't talk about it," Lucy

said.

He could see that she was still to some extent ashamed of her secret, embarrassed

by her "ugly defect." Though to his medically trained mind this seemed the height of

silliness, he was sensitive enough to identify with her. It also put him on the right track to

making her feel better.

"OK, I know your secret so now I'll tell you mine," he said. "You always ask me what

I'm doing in this town, one of the youngest and most brilliant surgeons in the East." He

was mocking some newspaper reports about himself. "The truth is that I'm an

abortionist, which in itself is not so bad, so is half the medical profession; but I got

caught. I had a friend, a doctor named Kennedy, we interned (intern – студент

медицинского колледжа или молодой врач, работающий в больнице и живущий

при ней) together, and he's a really straight guy but he said he'd help me. I understand

Tom Hagen had told him if he ever needed help on anything the Corleone Family was

indebted to him. So he spoke to Hagen. The next thing I know the charges were

dropped, but the Medical Association and the Eastern establishment had me black-

listed. So the Corleone Family got me this job out here. I make a good living. I do a job

that has to be done. These show girls are always getting knocked up and aborting them

is the easiest thing in the world if they come to me right away. I curette (кюретка /хир./;

выскабливать кюреткой [kju∂'ret]) 'em like you scrape a frying pan. Freddie Corleone

is a real terror. By my count he's knocked up fifteen girls while I've been here. I've

seriously considered giving him a father-to-son talk about sex. Especially since I've had

to treat him three times for clap (триппер) and once for syphilis. Freddie is the original

bareback (без седла, на неоседланной лошади) rider."

Jules stopped talking. He had been deliberately indiscreet, something he never did, so

that Lucy would know that other people, including someone she knew and feared a little

like Freddie Corleone, also had shameful secrets.

"Think of it as a piece of elastic in your body that has lost its elasticity," Jules said. "By

cutting out a piece, you make it tighter, snappier."

"I'll think about it," Lucy said, but she was sure she was going to go through with it,

she trusted Jules absolutely. Then she thought of something else. "How much will it

cost?"

Jules frowned. "I haven't the facilities here for surgery like that and I'm not the expert

at it. But I have a friend in Los Angeles who's the best in the field and has facilities at

the best hospital. In fact he tightens up all the movie stars, when those dames find out

140

that getting their faces and breasts lifted isn't the whole answer to making a man love

them. He owes me a few favors so it won't cost anything. I do his abortions for him.

Listen, if it weren't unethical I'd tell you the names of some of the movie sex queens

who have had the operation."

She was immediately curious. "Oh, come on, tell me," she said. "Come on." It would

be a delicious piece of gossip and one of the things about Jules was that she could

show her feminine love of gossip without him making fun of it.

"I'll tell you if you have dinner with me and spend the night with me," Jules said. "We

have a lot of lost time to make up for because of your silliness."

Lucy felt an overwhelming affection to him for being so kind and she was able to say,

"You don't have to sleep with me, you know you won't enjoy it the way I am now."

Jules burst out laughing. "You dope, you incredible dope. Didn't you ever hear of any

other way of making love, far more ancient, far more civilized. Are you really that

innocent?"

"Oh that," she said.

"Oh that," he mimicked her. "Nice girls don't do that, manly men don't do that. Even in

the year 1948. Well, baby, I can take you to the house of a little old lady right here in

Las Vegas who was the youngest madam of the most popular whorehouse in the wild

west days, back in 1880, I think it was. She likes to talk about the old days. You know

what she told me? That those gunslingers (стрелки; агрессивные ребята; to sling –

швырять; метать из пращи; sling – праща; рогатка), those manly, virile, straight-

shooting cowboys would always ask the girls for a 'French,' what we doctors call fellatio,

what you call 'oh that.' Did you ever think of doing 'oh that' with your beloved Sonny?"

For the first time she truly surprised him. She turned on him with what he could think

of only as a Mona Lisa smile (his scientific mind immediately darting off on a tangent

(отклонился в сторону; tangent ['tжndG∂nt] – касательная; тангенс), could this be the

solving of that centuries-old mystery?) and said quietly, "I did everything with Sonny." It

was the first time she had ever admitted anything like that to anyone.

Two weeks later Jules Segal stood in the operating room of the Los Angeles hospital

and watched his friend Dr. Frederick Kellner perform the specialty. Before Lucy was put

under anesthesia, Jules leaned over and whispered, "I told him you were my special girl

so he's going to put in some real tight walls." But the preliminary pill had already made

her dopey and she didn't laugh or smile. His teasing remark did take away some of the

terror of the operation.

141

Dr. Kellner made his incision (разрез, надрез) with the confidence of a pool (лужа,

прудок; омут, заводь) shark (акула) making an easy shot. The technique of any

operation to strengthen the pelvic floor required the accomplishment of two objectives.

The musculofibrous pelvic sling had to be shortened so that the slack was taken up.

And of course the vaginal opening, the weak spot itself in the pelvic floor, had to be

brought forward, brought under the pubic arch and so relieved from the line of direct

pressure above. Repairing the pelvic sling (ремень, канат) was called perincorrhaphy.