When we entered the room, an old man was sitting at the table by the window. He had long greasy hair, glassy eyes and a very sad expression on his face.

He had an empty beer glass in front of him, but he didn’t care. He was holding the glass with his hand and he was looking out of the window.

It was raining heavily and the rain drops were running down the window glass. They were running down in small streams of water and the man was watching those drops of water until they came down to the windowsill. Then he started watching other drops of the rain again.

Nobody talked to the old man. Nobody cared about him. Nobody knew who he was.

We took a table on the other side of the room. I could see the old man very well from my chair. We ordered the beer and when the waiter took our order, he went to the old man and asked if he wanted another beer.

The old man stopped watching the raindrops. He looked at the waiter, shook his head and said ‘No, thank you. How much do I owe you?’

The waiter told him how much he needed to pay and went to get the beer for us.

The old man pulled out a lot of small coins out of his pocket, put them all on the table and started counting them. When he got the right amount, he put them all together. Then he took the rest of the coins off the table and put them into his pocket.

He got up slowly, looked at the window one more time and then he left.

greasy /ˈɡriːsi/ – mastný

glassy /ˈɡlɑːsi/ – sklenné; aj hladké ako sklo

expression /ɪkˈspreʃn/ – výraz

run down – tu: stekať dole

stream /striːm/ – prúd, potok

windowsill /ˈwɪndəʊsɪl/ – parapeta

shake /ʃeɪk/ (shook, shaken) – triasť, potriasť

owe /əʊ/ – dĺžiť niekomu niečo

coin /kɔɪn/ – minca

amount /əˈmaʊnt/ – množstvo, suma

the rest – zvyšok