It was about eleven o’clock when he went to bed. But he couldn’t sleep. The noises from the street and the memories of the past twenty-four hours were keeping him awake.
The neon lights from the nearby bar were coming in through the window. The badly closed blinds allowed them to play a little light show on the ceiling. He was watching their violent dance. Red, blue, green – they were moving fast and chasing one another right in front of his eyes.
He heard the sound of a passing car. And then everything fell silent. The lights on the ceiling mixed with the silence in the room. He found it almost unbearable. He needed to talk. He needed to be with someone or he would go crazy.
He rolled on his bed, turned on the bedside lamp and reached for the phone. He pulled it towards himself and sat up on the bed.
There was a brief instruction on a piece of paper below the buttons on how to call the reception desk or another room in the hotel. It said to press “*” and then dial the number of the room for the direct call.
He pressed the “*” and then he dialed the room number.
It rang.
It rang only once.
‘Can’t sleep?’ he asked.
blind /blaɪnd/ – (žalúzie, roleta) – material that covers a window, often consisting of a roll of cloth that is fixed at the top of the window and can be pulled up and down
allow /əˈlaʊ/ – (dovoliť) – to let somebody/something do something; to let something happen or be done
ceiling /ˈsiːlɪŋ/ – (strop, plafón) – the top inside surface of a room
violent /ˈvaɪələnt/ – (tu: divoký, náhly) – very strong and sudden
chase /tʃeɪs/ – (naháňať) – to run, drive, etc. after somebody/something in order to catch them or it
unbearable /ʌnˈbeərəbl/ – (neznesiteľný) – too painful, annoying or unpleasant to deal with or accept
go crazy – (zblázniť sa)
dial /ˈdaɪəl/ – (vytočiť číslo na tel.) – to use a phone by pushing buttons or turning the dial to call a number
Sparrow's English Reader 