Just the daintiest stick there would kill him and solve so many serious, agonizing problems for them both.
Даже легчайший удар в это место был бы смертельным и разрешил бы для них обоих множество серьезных, мучительных проблем.
'Does it hurt?' Orr asked at precisely that moment, as though by protective instinct.
- А это больно? - вдруг спросил Орр, будто повинуясь инстинкту самосохранения.
Yossarian eyed him closely.
Йоссариан остановил на нем пристальный взгляд:
'Does what hurt?'
- Что больно?
'Your leg,' said Orr with a strange, mysterious laugh.
- Я про твою ногу, - сказал Орр со странным, загадочным смешком.
'You still limp a little.'
- Ты еще малость хромаешь.
'It's just a habit, I guess,' said Yossarian, breathing again with relief.
- Эти я, наверное, по привычке, - сказал Йоссариан, с облегчением переводя дух.
'I'll probably get over it soon.' Orr rolled over sideways to the floor and came up on one knee, facing toward Yossarian. 'Do you remember,' he drawled reflectively, with an air of labored recollection, 'that girl who was hitting me on the head that day in Rome?' He chuckled at Yossarian's involuntary exclamation of tricked annoyance. 'I'll make a deal with you about that girl. I'll tell you why that girl was hitting me on the head with her shoe that day if you answer one question.' 'What's the
question?' 'Did you ever screw Nately's girl?'
- Скоро пройдет.
Yossarian laughed with surprise. 'Me? No. Now tell me why that girl hit you with her shoe.' 'That wasn't the question,' Orr informed him with victorious delight. 'That was just conversation. She acts like you screwed her.' 'Well, I didn't. How does she act?' 'She acts like she don't like you.' 'She doesn't like anyone.' 'She likes Captain Black,' Orr reminded. 'That's because he treats her like dirt. Anyone can get a girl that way.' 'She wears a slave bracelet on her leg with his name on it.' 'He makes her wear it to needle Nately.' 'She even gives him some of the money she gets from Nately.' 'Listen, what do you want from me?' 'Did you ever screw my girl?' 'Your girl? Who the hell is your girl?'
'The one who hit me over the head with her shoe.' 'I've been with her a couple of times,' Yossarian admitted. 'Since when is she your girl? What are you getting at?' 'She don't like you, either.' 'What
the hell do I care if she likes me or not? She likes me as much as she likes you.' 'Did she ever hit you over the head with her shoe?' 'Orr, I'm tired. Why don't you leave me alone?' 'Tee-hee-hee. How about that skinny countess in Rome and her skinny daughter-in-law?' Orr persisted impishly with
increasing zest. 'Did you ever screw them?' 'Oh, how I wish I could,' sighed Yossarian honestly, imagining, at the mere question, the prurient, used, decaying feel in his petting hands of their teeny, pulpy buttocks and breasts. 'They don't like you either,' commented Orr. 'They like Aarfy, and they like Nately, but they don't like you. Women just don't seem to like you. I think they think you're a bad influence.' 'Women are crazy,' Yossarian
answered, and waited grimly for what he knew was coming next. 'How about that other girl of yours?' Orr asked with a pretense of pensive curiosity. 'The fat one? The bald one? You know, that fat bald one in Sicily with the turban who kept sweating all over us all night long? Is she crazy too?' 'Didn't she like me either?' 'How could you do it to a girl with no hair?' 'How was I supposed to know she had no hair?' 'I knew it,' Orr bragged. 'I knew it all the time.' 'You knew she was bald?' Yossarian
exclaimed in wonder. 'No, I knew this valve
wouldn't work if I left a part out,' Orr answered, glowing with cranberry-red elation because he had
just duped Yossarian again. 'Will you please hand me that small composition gasket that rolled over there? It's right near your foot.' 'No it isn't.' 'Right here,' said Orr, and took hold of something invisible with the tips of his fingernails and held it up for Yossarian to see. 'Now I'll have to start all over again.' 'I'll kill you if you do. I'll murder you right on the spot.'
'Why don't you ever fly with me?' Orr asked suddenly, and looked straight into Yossarian's face for the first time.
- Почему ты со мной никогда не летаешь? -внезапно спросил Орр и впервые посмотрел Йоссариану прямо в глаза.
' There, that's the question I want you to answer.
- Вот вопрос, на который я хочу услышать ответ.
Why don't you ever fly with me?'
Почему ты никогда со мной не летаешь?
Yossarian turned away with intense shame and embarrassment.
Йоссариан отвернулся, испытывая стыд и замешательство:
' I told you why.
- Я тебе говорил почему.
They've got me flying lead bombardier most of the time.'
Меня почти все время заставляют летать ведущим.
' That's not why,' Orr said, shaking his head.
- Не поэтому, - покачивая головой, сказал Орр.
'You went to Piltchard and Wren after the first Avignon mission and told them you didn't ever want to fly with me.
- После первого налета на Авиньон ты пошел к Пилтчарду и Рену и сказал им, что больше никогда не будешь летать со мной.
That's why, isn't it?'
Так ведь было?
Yossarian felt his skin turn hot.
Йоссариану стало жарко.
'No I didn't,' he lied.
- Я им этого не говорил, - соврал он.
' Yes you did,' Orr insisted equably.
- Говорил, говорил, - спокойно настаивал Орр.
'You asked them not to assign you to any plane piloted by me, Dobbs or Huple because you didn't have confidence in us at the controls.
- Ты просил их не назначать тебя на машины, которые пилотирую я, Доббс или Хьюпл, потому что ты нам не доверяешь.
And Piltchard and Wren said they couldn't make an exception of you because it wouldn't be fair to the men who did have to fly with us.'
А Пилтчард и Рен сказали, что они не могут сделать для тебя исключение, потому что это будет несправедливо по отношению к тем, кому придется с нами летать.
'So?' said Yossarian.
- Ну и что? - спросил Йоссариан.
'It didn't make any difference then, did it?'
- Выходит, от этого все равно ничего не изменилось.
'But they've never made you fly with me.' Orr, working on both knees again, was addressing Yossarian without bitterness or reproach, but with injured humility, which was infinitely more painful to observe, although he was still grinning and snickering, as though the situation were comic.
- Да, только с тех пор они тебя уже не заставляют летать со мной, - стоя на коленях, говорил Орр без горечи и упрека. Но оттого, что в глубине души он был уязвлен, смотреть на него стало совсем невозможно, хотя он по-прежнему продолжал скалить зубы, как будто речь шла о чем-то очень смешном.
' You really ought to fly with me, you know.
- А ведь тебе стоило бы полетать со мной.
I'm a pretty good pilot, and I'd take care of you.
