【英文短篇小说】Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit

I’VE seen some things. I was going over to my mother’s to stay a few nights. But just as I got to the top of the stairs, I looked and she was on the sofa kissing a man. It was summer. The door was open. The TV was going. That’s one of the things I’ve seen.

My mother is sixty-five. She belongs to a singles club. Even so, it was hard. I stood with my hand on the railing and watched as the man kissed her. She was kissing him back, and the TV was going.

Things are better now. But back in those days, when my mother was putting out, I was out of work. My kids were crazy, and my wife was crazy. She was putting out too. The guy that was getting it was an unemployed¹ aerospace² engineer she’d met at AA. He was also crazy.

His name was Ross and he had six kids. He walked with a limp³ from a gunshot wound his first wife gave him.

I don’t know what we were thinking of in those days.

This guy’s second wife had come and gone, but it was his first wife who had shot him for not meeting his payments⁴. I wish him well now. Ross. What a name! But it was different then. In those days I mentioned weapons. I’d say to my wife, “I think I’ll get a Smith and Wesson.” But I never did it.

Ross was a little guy. But not too little. He had a moustache and always wore a button-up sweater.

His one wife jailed⁵ him once. The second one did. I found out from my daughter that my wife went bail⁶. My daughter Melody⁷ didn’t like it any better than I did. About the bail. It wasn’t that Melody was looking out for me. She wasn’t looking out for either one of us, her mother or me neither. It was just that there was a serious cash thing and if some of it went to Ross, there’d be that much less for Melody. So Ross was on Melody’s list. Also, she didn’t like his kids, and his having so many of them. But in general Melody said Ross was all right.

He’d even told her fortune once.

THIS Ross guy spent his time repairing things, now that he had no regular job. But I’d seen his house from the outside. It was a mess. Junk all around. Two busted⁸ Plymouths in the yard.

In the first stages of the thing they had going, my wife claimed the guy collected antique⁹ cars. Those were her words, “antique cars.” But they were just clunkers.

I had his number. Mr. Fixit.

But we had things in common, Ross and me, which was more than just the same woman. For example, he couldn’t fix the TV when it went crazy and we lost the picture. I couldn’t fix it either. We had volume, but no picture. If we wanted the news, we had to sit around the screen and listen.

Ross and Myrna met when Myrna was trying to stay sober¹⁰. She was going to meetings, I’d say, three or four times a week. I had been in and out myself. But when Myrna met Ross, I was out and drinking a fifth a day. Myrna went to the meetings, and then she went over to Mr. Fixit’s house to cook for him and clean up. His kids were no help in this regard. Nobody lifted a hand around Mr. Fixit’s house, except my wife when she was there.

ALL this happened not too long ago, three years about. It was something in those days.

I left my mother with the man on her sofa and drove around for a while. When I got home, Myrna made me a coffee.

She went out to the kitchen to do it while I waited until I heard her running water. Then I reached under a cushion for the bottle.

I think maybe Myrna really loved the man. But he also had a little something on the side—a twenty-two-year-old named Beverly. Mr. Fixit did okay for a little guy who wore a button-up sweater.

He was in his mid-thirties when he went under. Lost his job and took up the bottle. I used to make fun of him when I had the chance. But I don’t make fun of him anymore.

God bless and keep you, Mr. Fixit.

He told Melody he’d worked on the moon shots. He told my daughter he was close friends with the astronauts. He told her he was going to introduce her to the astronauts as soon as they came to town.

It’s a modern operation out there, the aerospace place where Mr. Fixit used to work. I’ve seen it. Cafeteria lines, executive¹¹ dining rooms, and the like. Mr. Coffees in every office.

Mr. Coffee and Mr. Fixit.

Myrna says he was interested in astrology, auras, I Ching—that business. I don’t doubt that this Ross was bright enough and interesting, like most of our ex-friends. I told Myrna I was sure she wouldn’t have cared for him if he wasn’t.

MY dad died in his sleep, drunk¹², eight years ago. It was a Friday noon and he was fifty-four. He came home from work at the sawmill, took some sausage out of the freezer for his breakfast, and popped a quart¹³ of Four Roses.

My mother was there at the same kitchen table. She was trying to write a letter to her sister in Little Rock. Finally, my dad got up and went to bed. My mother said he never said good night. But it was morning, of course.

“Honey,” I said to Myrna the night she came home. “Let’s hug awhile and then you fix us a real nice supper.”

Myrna said, “Wash your hands.”

1 unemployed   

adj.失业的，没有工作的；未动用的，闲置的

参考例句：

• There are now over four million unemployed workers in this country.这个国家现有四百万失业人员。
• The unemployed hunger for jobs.失业者渴望得到工作。

2 aerospace   

adj.航空的，宇宙航行的

参考例句：

• The world's entire aerospace industry is feeling the chill winds of recession.全世界的航空航天工业都感受到了经济衰退的寒意。
• Edward Murphy was an aerospace engineer for the US Army.爱德华·墨菲是一名美军的航宇工程师。

3 limp   

adj.软弱的，无精神的，松沓的；vi.蹒跚；n.跛行

参考例句：

• His limp is result of a car accident last year.他的跛足是去年一次车祸所致的结果。
• He gave her a limp,cold handshake.他有气无力且冷淡地与她握了一下手。

4 payments   

n.支付，付款，缴纳，报酬( payment的名词复数 )；付出的[要付出的]款项；报答，报偿

参考例句：

• Welfare payments cease as soon as an individual starts a job. 一旦就业，即停发福利救济。
• The law can compel fathers to make regular payments for their children. 这项法律可强制父亲定期支付子女的费用。

5 jailed   

监禁，拘留( jail的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was jailed for life for murder. 他因杀人罪被终生监禁。
• The kidnappers had threatened to behead all four unless their jailed comrades were released. 帮匪们曾经威胁说如果印度方面不释放他们的同伙，他们就要将这四名人质全部斩首。

6 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

7 melody   

n.旋律，曲调，悦耳的音乐

参考例句：

• She struck up a folk melody on the piano.她开始用钢琴演奏那首民歌。
• After she wrote the melody,she asked us for criticisms.她做好曲之后，请我们提意见。

8 busted   

adj. 破产了的，失败了的，被降级的，被逮捕的，被抓到的 动词bust的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• You are so busted! 你被当场逮住了！
• It was money troubles that busted up their marriage. 是金钱纠纷使他们的婚姻破裂了。

9 antique   

adj.古时的，古代的；n.古物，古器，古玩

参考例句：

• The Sunday antique market is a happy hunting ground for collectors.周日的古董市场是收藏家的淘物乐园。
• I saw the vase in the window of an antique shop.我在一家古玩店的橱窗里看见了这个花瓶。

10 sober   

adj.清醒的，沉着冷静的，稳重的，颜色暗淡的；vt.使清醒，使沉着；vi.清醒，冷静下来

参考例句：

• He talked to us in a sober friendly fashion.他以冷静而又友好的方式同我们交谈。
• The man was still sober when he went home.那人回到家时头脑依然清醒。

11 executive   

adj.执行的，行政的；n.执行者，行政官，经理

参考例句：

• A good executive usually gets on well with people.一个好的高级管理人员通常与人们相处得很好。
• He is a man of great executive ability.他是个具有极高管理能力的人。

12 drunk   

adj.醉酒的；(喻)陶醉的；n.酗酒者，醉汉

参考例句：

• People who drives when they are drunk should be heavily penalised.醉酒驾车的人应受重罚。
• She found him drunk when she came home at night.她晚上回家时，经常发现他醉醺醺的。

13 quart   

n.夸脱（液量、干量单位）

参考例句：

• There is a quart of milk left in the pail.桶里还剩下一夸脱牛奶。
• That glass will contain a quart of beer.那个杯子可容一夸脱啤酒。