The light was off, but the room wasn’t dark. The light from the street lamps was flooding the space. A man was sitting in a rocking armchair near the window. He had a landline phone on his lap and the handset pressed against his ear. He was having a call with one of his colleagues about the latest case.
He was sitting in the darkness and looking out the window. And nobody could see him from the outside. He liked it that way. He rarely turned the light on. Maybe in his antechamber, but even there he didn’t have a real lamp. A single light bulb was hanging from the ceiling. It was on. It was the only source of light in the whole apartment.
He was listening to his colleague and looking at the car down below, which was trying to find a place to park. He felt tired.
The call was coming to an end. He said something in reply to his colleague and hung up. He put the handset back into the phone cradle and put the glass to his lips. It was empty.
He felt around his armchair until he touched the bottle of whisky. He unscrewed the cap and wanted to pour some whisky to his empty glass. But the bottle was empty, too.
He started looking around. ‘Did I buy only one bottle in the shop or two?’ he was thinking to himself. He got up and the world around him started spinning.
flood /flʌd/ – (zaplaviť) – if a place floods or something floods it, it becomes filled or covered with water
landline /ˈlændlaɪn/ – (pevná linka) – a phone connection that uses wires carried on poles or under the ground, in contrast to a mobile phone
handset /ˈhændset/ – (slúchadlo) – the part of a phone that you hold close to your mouth and ear to speak into and listen
rarely /ˈreəli/ – (zriedka) – not very often
antechamber /ˈæntitʃeɪmbə(r)/ – (predsieň) – a room where people can wait before entering a larger room, especially in an important public building
ceiling /ˈsiːlɪŋ/ – (plafón, strop) – the top inside surface of a room
cradle /ˈkreɪdl/ – (kolíska; tu: držiak na slúchadlo) – the part of a phone on which the handset rests
feel around – (hľadať po hmate) – to search for someone or something by touch, especially in the dark or a similar situation where one’s vision is limited
spin /spɪn/ – (točiť (sa), krútiť (sa)) – to turn round and round quickly; to make something do this
Sparrow's English Reader 