"Dickson, Gordon R - Dragon Knight 01 - Dragon And The George" - читать интересную книгу автора (Dickson Gordon R)

then.”

He went off. Jim returned to his own thoughts. At the same time, he
told himself, maturity dictated that he should not lose his emotional
control over something like this-even though they only had two
hours to get to the trailer court and return and have lunch before
getting Angie back to her part-time job as Grottwold’s lab assistant.
He must remember that frustration was a part of life. He had to
learn to live with the whole business of selfish department heads,
inadequate salaries and an economy that was pinching Riveroak
College here, like all other educational institutions, to the point
where it seemed that about all you could do with a doctorate in
medieval history was use the diploma to shine your shoes, before
going to apply for a job as a grain shoveler-

Jim hauled himself up in his thoughts at this point, having noticed
that, far from calming him down, this rehearsing of things to be
endured had his fists white-knuckled and beginning to bend the
ancient steering wheel of the Gorp. Nothing about the Gorp was
strong enough to ignore that kind of treatment. For a ten-year-old
Fiat, it was still a faithful little car, but no honest person could call it
in good shape. On the other hand, Jim himself-like many Class AA
volleyball players-was in shape with a vengeance. He stood a
shade under six feet, but even professional weight-guessers
usually underestimated by twenty or more his two hundred and ten
pounds, which he carried mostly in bone and hard muscle.
Unfortunately, that sort of physical engine, matched with an instinct
for taking direct action when challenged-which was useful on the
volleyball courts with the caliber of opponents Jim had been facing
in tournament play for some years now, but not perhaps the best
thing socially-gave Jim reason to consider that he had cause for
concern about himself.

Thank heaven for Angie. The beautiful thing about her was that she
could get results from people without becoming at all annoyed with
them, in situations when Jim would have sworn that the other
persons were deliberately looking for a fight. How she managed it,
Jim had never been able to figure out. As far as he could see, all
she did was to explain matters in a level, friendly voice.
Whereupon, for some reason, the other people immediately
stopped doing whatever they had been doing that was antagonistic
and became friendly and helpful. Angie was really rather special;
particularly for someone hardly bigger than a minute. Look at the
way she handled Grottwold...

Jim woke to the fact that time had been sliding away as he had
been sitting here thinking. He looked at his watch and scowled.
Nearly a quarter to eleven. This was too much. If Grottwold didn’t
have the sense to let her go, Angie herself ought to have broken
away by this time.