Щенок Элли, или Долгая дорога домой / Ellie the Homesick Puppy

Ellie wagged her tail delightedly as Bella fussed over[38 - Глагол fuss означает «суетиться», а в сочетании с over он описывает возню вокруг животного – когда его чешут, гладят, ласкают и говорят, какое оно красивое.] her.

‘I’ll email you loads of photos,’ Megan promised. ‘And you’re coming to stay.[39 - Обычно время Present Continuous (is/are + глагол + ing) описывает продолжительные действия в настоящем времени. Оно также может обозначать личные планы на будущее: Ты приедешь погостить.] Mum and Dad are going to get me a sleepover bed that slides under mine. Ellie can be half your dog again then.’

‘You’d better record her bark for me[40 - Конструкция somebody’d better do something передаёт мягкую рекомендацию: Тебе следовало бы записать для меня её лай.], too,’ Bella reminded her. ‘I’ll never get out of the house for school in the morning without Ellie barking outside the gate.’

Ellie yawned. Megan and Bella kept fiddling around with those boxes and talking, and no one was taking her for a walk. She was bored. She slid off the bed and squeezed underneath it. There were always interesting things to play with under there…

* * *

‘I knew it!’ Megan’s dad put his head round the door five minutes later. ‘You two are sitting there chatting, instead of filling boxes.’

‘Sorry!’ Megan and Bella jumped up, and Megan grabbed a pair of trainers and stuffed them quickly into a box, just to look busy.

‘And what’s Ellie doing under there?’ Dad asked, peering round the end of Megan’s bed.

Ellie crept out from under the bed looking rather guilty, with half a roll of brown packing tape attached to her whiskers. It was very chewy, though she didn’t really like the taste, and it seemed to have stuck…

‘Naughty Ellie!’ Megan giggled. ‘Sorry, Dad. I’ll clean her up…’

Dad shook his head. ‘Honestly, after she ate your mum’s shoe yesterday, you’d think she’d have had enough of chewing things[41 - You’d think she’d have had enough of chewing things – оба ’d расшифровываются здесь как would. Would have had выражает предположение, уже очевидно не реалистичное: Можно было бы подумать, что ей хватило жевания предметов.]. Just keep an eye on her, OK?’

Megan nodded apologetically, and started to peel the tape off Ellie’s muzzle. ‘Silly dog,’ she muttered lovingly, as Ellie squirmed. ‘Yes, I know it’s not nice, but you can’t go round with parcel tape all over you. There!’

After that the girls made a real effort to get on with packing, and for the next hour they hardly even chatted[42 - Hardly (едва ли, чуть не) часто переводится отрицанием: они едва ли разговаривали = почти не разговаривали.] at all.

Ellie whined miserably. After Megan had taken the tape away and told her off, she’d sat so patiently, waiting for someone to play with her, or take her for a walk, or at least stroke her. But Megan and Bella just kept taking things off the shelves and putting them into those strange-smelling boxes. Ellie didn’t like it. This was her room, and it was changing. She liked it the way it was before.

‘Oh, Ellie, are you bored?’ Megan picked her up, hugging her gently. ‘I wish I could play with you too.[43 - I wish I could play with you too. – I wish I could – это пожелание: Мне бы тоже хотелось с тобой поиграть.] But we won’t be much longer.’

‘Actually, I told Mum I’d be back around now,’ said Bella, hugging Megan and Ellie both at the same time. ‘I can’t believe you’ve only got tomorrow left!’ She gulped. ‘I wish Mum hadn’t arranged for us to go and see my cousins,[44 - Время Past Perfect (had + 3-я форма глагола) после I wish выражает сожаление о том, чего уже нельзя изменить: Жаль, что мама уже договорилась, что (в этот день) мы едем навестить кузенов.] not on your last day. Call me soon?[45 - Грамматически правильный вопрос выглядел бы так: Will you call me soon? Но в устной речи, в общении с друзьями, иногда можно не использовать вспомогательный глагол и местоимение.] Promise! Bye, Megan!’ Then she dashed out of the room and down the stairs, almost slamming the front door behind her.

Megan sat down limply on her bed, looking round at the piles of boxes, all labelled by Bella in her favourite glittery felt tips with her best spelling, which was dreadful. ‘It’s going to be brilliant,’ she told Ellie again, but this time she didn’t feel quite so sure.

Chapter Two

Packing up had been an adventure to start with, but by the second day, everyone was starting to get grumpy[46 - Конструкция get (got, got) + прилагательное описывает постепенное приобретение указанного качества: мрачнели.]. It was such a huge job. The removals van was coming early the next morning, and everything had to be packed up by then. Megan could tell that her mum was panicking that they wouldn’t be ready in time.

She was trying to stay out of the way as much as possible, but it wasn’t easy with Ellie. Mum and Dad were far too busy to take her for a proper walk, and Megan wasn’t allowed to go out on her own, so Ellie was full of energy, and she couldn’t work it off properly. Already that morning she’d chewed[47 - Здесь за ’d скрывается had. Время Past Perfect (had + 3-я форма глагола) описывает события в прошлом, происходившие ДО основных действий в прошлом. Элли УЖЕ изжевала рулон.] a roll of bubble wrap into tiny pieces all over the living room floor, and she kept managing to be in everyone’s way.

‘Mum, stop!’ Megan yelled, as her mum lowered a box of books on to the hall floor.

‘What? What is it?’ Her mum straightened up, red-faced with effort, and peered worriedly over the top of the huge box.

‘You were just about to squish Ellie with that!’ Megan helped her mum put the box down on top of another one, then pointed to the space she’d been aiming for. Ellie was sitting there, wagging her tail and looking very pleased with herself.

Mum sighed. ‘You’re going to have to take her into the garden. I’m sorry, Megan, but Ellie’s going to get hurt in a minute. She’s better off outside[48 - Устойчивое выражение be better off означает «быть в лучшем положении»: Ей будет лучше на улице.].’

‘Come on, Ellie!’ Megan tried to sound enthusiastic as she led Ellie out into the garden. She’d found the red-and-white-striped knotted rope toy that Bella had given Ellie for Christmas in her basket, so at least they could play.

Ellie loved racing up and down the garden after the rope, it was her favourite toy, although she didn’t see why she always had to give it back to Megan after she’d fetched it. It was much more fun to chew it to bits. She shook her head vigorously as Megan tugged at the toy, laughing.

‘Give it here, you silly girl! I’m going to throw it again!’

‘Megan, can you come here a moment!’ It was Mum, calling from inside. With everyone already a bit grumpy, she knew she’d better go and see what Mum wanted, rather than pretend she hadn’t heard.

‘I’ll be back in a minute,’ she promised Ellie, and dashed inside.

Ellie shook the toy a few more times and growled at it, in case it was thinking of fighting back. At last she dropped it on the grass, nosing it hopefully. Where was Megan? This game wasn’t as much fun without her. Ellie left the toy and trotted up the garden to the back door.

The door was closed, but Ellie scrambled up the back step, anyway. The door didn’t always shut properly, and sometimes she could open it, if she nudged it hard with her nose at just the right place. Ellie pushed at the door. She wagged her tail proudly as it swung open and trotted inside.

Ellie wandered along the hallway, listening for Megan. Ah! That was her voice, coming from upstairs. She bounded up the stairs to find her.

Unfortunately, Megan’s dad was coming down the stairs, with his arms full of pictures from the bedrooms that he needed to bubble-wrap.

Ellie yowled as he accidentally trod on her paw, and tried to shoot off[49 - Глагол shoot (shot, shot) описывает быстрое резкое движение, а предлог off обозначает его результат: улизнуть прочь.] through his legs.

Megan’s dad stumbled down the stairs, twisting his ankle. He landed painfully at the bottom.

Clutching his ankle, he looked up to see Ellie staring down at him.

‘That stupid dog!’ he yelled. ‘Megan! Ellie just tripped me up on the stairs. You’re supposed to be watching her! I thought Mum told you to put her outside.’

Megan and her mum had heard the crash, and they were already running along the landing.[50 - Сперва они услышали падение (had heard, время Past Perfect), а потом поспешили на лестницу (were running, время Past Continuous).]

‘She didn’t mean to!’ Megan protested, hurrying to pick up Ellie, who was whimpering in fright. ‘I’m sorry, Dad, she was outside. I can’t have shut the back door properly[51 - В английском языке отрицание присоединяется к первому глаголу предложения (например, «Я думаю, что я не сделал» будет I don’t think I did…). I can’t have shut the door properly не означает, что Меган не может справиться с дверью. Фраза переводится «Я могла плохо (неплотно) захлопнуть дверь».] – it wasn’t her fault. Are you OK?’

‘No,’ her father muttered crossly, stretching his ankle. ‘Take that dog outside, now. Ow!’

Megan carried Ellie back into the garden. The little dog was shivering. She wasn’t used to being shouted at[52 - Конструкция be used to (doing) something означает «привыкнуть к чему-либо». Being shouted at означает, что действие выполняет не Элли: оно направлено на неё. Получается: Элли не привыкла к тому, что на неё кричат.], and she’d never heard Megan’s dad sound so cross. Megan sat down on the garden bench and cuddled Ellie, whispering soothing words. ‘Ssshh, he didn’t mean it. I’m sorry, Ellie, I should have made sure[53 - I should have made sure – should выражает рекомендацию, а форма have made даёт понять, что она относится к событиям прошлого: мне надо было убедиться…] you couldn’t get back in.’

Ellie snuggled into her fleecy top, still shaking. At least Megan wasn’t angry with her. She whined with pleasure as Megan stroked her ears.

She knew Megan would always be there to look after her.

Chapter Three

Ellie rested her chin on Megan’s shoulder, as she lovingly stroked her head over and over.

‘Megan!’ Mum was calling from inside. Megan stood up slowly, carrying Ellie. She was growing so fast! She had been so small when they got her, it had been easy to hold her like this. But now she was getting to be a real weight.

‘Oof, Ellie, my arms are going to fall off,’ Megan teased her lovingly, as she carried her up the garden. She felt Ellie tense up a little as they went into the kitchen to join Mum and Dad. Obviously she remembered Dad shouting at her. ‘Hey, ssshhh, it’s OK,’ she whispered. But Ellie buried her nose in Megan’s neck and whimpered.

‘Is Ellie all right?’ Mum asked. ‘She didn’t get hurt too, did she?’[54 - Такие вопросы задают, когда почти уверены в ответе. Если в основном предложении есть отрицание, в вопросительном «хвостике» его не будет, и наоборот.]

Megan shook her head. ‘No, I think she’s just a bit upset. She didn’t know what was going on. I’m really sorry she tripped you up, Dad. How’s your ankle?’

Dad had it propped up on the chair in front of him, covered by a bag of frozen peas. ‘I’ll live. But this has made us think[55 - Время Present Perfect (have/has + 3-я форма глагола) описывает действия, начавшиеся в прошлом и имеющие результат к настоящему моменту. Родители задумались, когда папа споткнулся об Элли, и уже что-то придумали.], Megan. Mum and I have talked it over, and we’re sure it’s the right thing to do now…’